Last Train Home: A Platinum Nuzlocke
by the cantarella of odile
Summary: When Odile Rella runs away with her best friend, an unforeseen accident forces her to challenge the League: a daunting task, even for the best of trainers. During her travels she faces an alleged murderer and a trigger-happy policeman, and uncovers a dark secret about her world's leaders that sweeps her into a plot of danger and mystery. Rated T for violent and romantic themes.
1. Preface

**Disclaimer:** Pokemon, along with all related ideas, names, etc. belong purely to Gamefreak. I own nothing. Secondly, all lyrics sampled are not mine, and I do not claim ownership to them. Also, I would like to say that I do not own the cover art for this story: I got it from _weheartit . com, _and all rights go to the artist. No copyright infringement intended.

**Summary**:When Odile Rella runs away with her best friend, an unforeseen accident forces her to challenge the League: a daunting task, even for the best of trainers. During her travels she faces an alleged murderer and a trigger-happy policeman, and uncovers a dark secret about her world's leaders that sweeps her into a plot of danger and mystery.

**Rating: **Rated T for violent and romantic themes.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

**Preface**

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

It was incredible how one word could change everything. How one small, long-overdue word could make all the difference in the world.

He stopped in his tracks. "What did you just say to me?"

"I said _no." _Fighting to be heard over the howling wind, I shouted, "You have to stop this!"

The Griseous Orb flickered in his hand, violet as the portal that roiled behind him. "If you think that you can defy me, then you're sorely mistaken." Above us, lightning spun cobwebs of gold against the night sky.

I gripped dialga's sphere tighter, its pearly glow peeking out from between my fingers. "Haven't enough people already gotten hurt for your insane ideal?" I glanced down at the body at my feet- at the glassy, familiar eyes, the hair matted with blood- and felt grief threaten to swallow my voice. "Haven't enough people already _died?"_

The portal had begun to expand, tearing a further hole in space. "They aren't truly dead. Once you give me the Adamant Orb they'll all be brought back. Don't you see?" Light blazed out from giratina's sphere, throwing his expression into shadow. "You can bring him back. You can bring them _all _back, every man and woman and creature that's been killed." He gestured to the other corpses that littered the rocky mountain floor. "Isn't that what you want?"

"Yes." The answer scraped past my teeth. "More than anything." _But I can't let you do this. I won't._

"Then give it to me." He extended his free hand, palm-up. "Give me the orb."

Tears blurred my vision as I stepped over the body at my feet. From behind me I could hear someone shouting my name, pleading for me to stop. I ignored it.

"Good choice," he said when I came to a stop in front of him. From this distance I could feel the disturbance the portal was causing, could feel the little ripples in the space-time continuum it was making.

He was relaxed, unguarded. Victory creased his face with lines of satisfaction.

Reaching out past his outstretched hand, I shoved him backwards. Taken by surprise, he lost his footing, and stumbled back towards the dimensional rift.

Disbelief flared in his eyes. "What do you think you're doing?"

In answer I lunged at him. He regained his balance quicker than I expected, and his fist swung up, connecting with my jaw. Pain exploded in the left side of my face.

"You fool!" he spat. "What do you think fighting will accomplish now? I have awakened the gods of time and space, and I have put the Red Chain into play. There is nothing for you to do now other than accept my vision."

Adrenaline thundered through my veins. "That's not true. The legendary trio will stop you-"

"It's true that it takes the three of them to balance either dialga or palkia, but they are incapable of maintaining balance against the two." I charged again, but he stopped me with a blow to my nose. There was a sickening _crack, _and I screamed, my hands reflexively flying up to cover it. The orb fell from my hand and rolled towards his feet.

_"No." _Desperate, I reached for the sphere with hands wet from the blood that was dripping from my nose. He brought his foot down, his boot crushing my fingers. I choked back a sob of pain.

"Stupid girl." The lightning bleached the colour from his face, turning it skeletal. "You are only delaying the inevitable."

"I won't let you destroy this world," I croaked. He lifted his foot, only to let it drop back down again, and a scream was ripped from my throat. Someone shouted _"Stop hurting her!"_, but they sounded impossibly far away.

"I thought I had made it clear that I am not destroying this world; I am simply replacing it." He stooped down to pick up dialga's orb. Straightening, he held it up admiringly. "And now I have the final tool I need to do so."

_Don't, _I tried to say, but the words failed.

His voice rose, cutting through the storm with ease. "Dialga, legend of time, temporal god..." He lifted the sphere up above his head. "With this Adamant Orb, I command you to complete this rift, and bring forth your superior." The orb began to shine, glowing from the inside out. "I command you to bring forth giratina!"

Lightning forked through the sky, blinding in its intensity. The wind rose to a shrieking howl. The portal darkened, its violet hue dropping to black.

_So this is it. _Defeat washed over me, and I wondered, suddenly, if I would be able to crawl over to lay down next to... to _his _body. I wondered if that would make dying like this any less frightening, or painful.

Through misty eyes, I watched as a single eye emerged from the swirling darkness of the portal. Another one materialized soon after, red and blinking.

"Giratina," I heard my enemy say.

It rose up like a shadow, twice as large as the pillars that spotted the mountaintop. Its spiked wings were so enormous that they blotted out the sky, and as they unfurled they sent shadows splattering like liquid onto the ground. The darkness it was made of seethed as if with breath.

"Giratina," he said again. He stood proud, a pale shadow against the all-encompassing darkness that was giratina. "Legend of darkness, you will bow to _me._ I have already harnessed the orbs of dialga and palkia; I have brought the legendary trio to their knees..."

The spikes on its wings were rearranging, lengthening into claws. Still, the Galactic Industries member kept talking.

"With you as my servant, I will replace this ugly world..."

The creature pulled its wings back in preparation for a strike. A crescent of red shone through the dark, and with a wave of nausea I realized that it was a smile. The thing was _smiling. _

"And my dream will finally be made real!"

With its horrible grin still in place, giratina sprang. Its wings spread farther, enveloping everything, and the last thing I saw before my vision went dark was one of its spikes rushing towards me.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

*Edited

_Important A/N: Please Read._

_This was started on a whim, and continued on a wish: a wish to complete this story, since it gained such undeserved praise._

_Now, this story, though one I hold dear to my heart, is not as much a story as it is a learning experience: I learned and evolved along with my protagonist as she grew into a real original character. I struggled along with her as I built plot, endured flames, and strived to save this fic from ruin._

_And I did. I rewrote this story and saved it from nose-diving straight into the ground, all thanks to my reviewers. Because of this, I have dedicated this story to all my wonderful readers: each and every one of you is wonderful, and I thank you all for your criticism, compliments, and endless support. _


	2. Break Away

**Disclaimer:** ThunderRiver: Thanks for your review! WhiteRose: You're the best, thank you for adding this story to your favourites and alerts, and thank you for your review! Autumn: You… *blinks back tears of gratitude* …are too amazing. Thank you!

Song for this chapter: 'Break Away', by Kelly Clarkson.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

**Chapter One: Break Away**

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

_Once upon a time, _I wrote with a shaking hand, _there was a writer that locked herself inside a tower because being poetic was all she had. She saw stars as mirrors reflecting half-hopeful maybes, and would wish on the ones she couldn't see for an adventure she had given up on_

"She's not fit to travel!" Another one of my father's shouts banged against my bedroom door, and I flinched, jerking out of my thoughts. "She gets homesick easily; she can't handle money; she nearly failed the battling simulations at school; she's too dependent, too emotional-"

"She is your _daughter, _Brighton." My mom's wispy voice rose in protest. I could picture her sitting on her armchair in the living room, fingers laced nervously together in her lap. "You should respect her wishes."

"She is a _child." _At the venom in my father's voice, I could feel the tears start up again. Taking a deep breath, I turned to a new page in my journal and coped the only way I knew how: by writing.

_Once upon a time, there was a girl who used words as an escape. She would treat the slopes of the letters as doorways, and would use the jagged edges as hot air balloons that could carry her away from wherever she did not want to be. She would write about the shipwrecks she found in the cracks in her ceiling, and how whenever she beat her sheets dreams would fly out instead of_

"Odile is seventeen." Mom's voice dragged me back to reality once again. "She is old enough to make her own choices."

"Again with that stupid nickname!" His words were like fists hammering against my temples. "And what about her post-secondary plans? Are you suggesting that she drops them in favor of this outrageous-"

_Don't listen to him. Don't listen. Don't listen. _I pressed a fist against my mouth, trying my best to block him out. _If you listen you'll cry. Write his voice away. Drown it in ink._

My pen scratched feverishly against the page, shaping the words with a fierce sort of desperation. _Once upon a time there was me, and being poetic was all I had. I saw stars as mirrors and letters as doorways, and found solace in the space between words_

"Odile?" My mom's voice broke through my concentration, this time sounding much closer. I looked up to see her open the door. "May I come in?"

Shutting my journal, I dragged a sleeve across my eyes, and waved her in.

Her face twisted in guilt when she spotted the tears that lingered on my face. "Sweetheart, I'm sorry," she said, stepping inside. She rushed over to hug me. "Your dad was wrong to have spoken to you like that. Don't take it to heart."

I nodded against her shoulder, unable to speak past the pressure in my throat. I had known that asking to spend the summer travelling would end with me in tears and my father in a rage: every conversation of ours seemed to veer that way. Still, his reaction when I had admitted that I had gotten my trainer's license without his knowledge went above and beyond our usual spats.

"He called me useless." My voice, when I eventually did raise it, had never sounded smaller.

Her arms tightened around me. "He's just scared at the thought of you going out on your own."

I snorted.

She broke the embrace, and put her hands on my shoulders. "I know that it's hard to believe, but it's the truth." She hesitated. "Do you want to hear something that might make you feel better?"

"Alright."

"My parents said the exact same thing to me when I wanted to leave and pursue my career as a coordinator."

I perked up a little at the mention of coordinating. "Really?"

She nodded.

"So what did you do?" I wondered aloud.

The ghost of a smile played across her thin, cigarette-spotted lips. "I ran away."

I stared at her in disbelief. "You did not."

"I did." She took both of my hands in hers. "While they were at work I wrote them a letter, and left. Just like that."

"Just like that," I echoed. "Didn't you feel bad, though? I'd feel awful-"

"Of course I did." She gave my fingers a squeeze. "They were angry, as well. I'd only been in Hearthome for three weeks when they found me and took me back home. I was grounded for two months. But you know what?"

"What?"

"It was worth it. It wasn't some fabulous adventure- I didn't get famous or anything like that, and there were times when all I wanted to do was give up and go home- but I felt proud of myself, because I was finally following my heart and doing what _I _wanted to do. I met some incredible people. I visited new places, and tried new things. I learned a lot about myself. And if I had the chance, I would do it over again in a heartbeat." Her faded green eyes bored into mine. "Do you understand?"

"Yes." The word was accompanied by what I knew was a watery smile. "Thank you, Mom. I love you."

"I love you too, honey. No matter what." She planted a kiss on my forehead and left the room, closing the door gently behind her. Wiping a hand across my cheeks to get rid of the wetness there, I withdrew my trainer card from my pocket. It was a brilliant scarlet in colour, my name and personal information printed in black lettering across it. At the side was a picture of me.

There was something magical about that picture. It showed my face down to my shoulders, and I could remember every second of before and after it was taken. One of my best friends, Damion, had gotten his license with me, and had snuck behind the photographer to make the most ridiculous faces imaginable throughout the entire ordeal. And even though the smile that split my lips was lopsided, even though my eyes were half-shut in laughter, I still liked it. Loved it, even. That smile was a real smile, not one plastered on just for the photo, and my eyes seemed to catch and hold the flash of the camera. I had been truly happy in that picture.

That happiness was becoming a memory more quickly than I would like.

Clearing my throat to get rid of the tears that clogged it, I stowed my license away. I slid my feet into a pair of runners and went out into the hallway. Skirting the living room to ensure that I wouldn't have a run-in with my father, I unlocked the front door and slipped outside.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Fifteen minutes later, I found Damion playing basketball on the blacktop behind our school.

The June sun set his hair aglow, the curls covering his forehead and ending a little ways above his equally fair eyebrows. The T-shirt and sweatpants he wore hung loosely from his tall, thin frame, his skin sunburnt despite the fact that it had been unseasonably cold for the past few weeks.

"Damion," I called. He turned, and flashed me a smile as I came to stand in front of him.

"Hey, Odile," he said, slightly out of breath.

"How'd it go for you?" I asked.

He sighed, scuffing his feet. "I got an earful from my mom," he admitted. "She guilt-tripped me by talking about Dad and all that. But," he added, perking up, "I _am _allowed to go. What about you?"

Looking into his hopeful face caused the tears to come back with a vengeance. I shook my head, rubbing a hand across my eyes.

"Hey." I heard the ball drop to the ground, and he leaned in closer, his typically loud voice softening. "What happened?"

"The usual." My voice cracked over the words. "My father…"

Knowing full well how the fights between me and my father went, Damion pulled me in for a bone-crushing hug, my cheek pressed against the base of his chest. I breathed in the scent of sweat and cotton, my eyes stinging.

"You okay?" he asked, his tone heavy with concern.

"No. I…" He ran a slim-fingered hand up and down my back, and I forced myself to calm down. "I don't know what to do, Damion. My mom made it clear that she wouldn't hold it against me if I decided to go, but…"

He pulled back to frown at me, holding me at arms-length. "I'm not going without you," he said, more firmly than I'd ever heard him say anything. "We've planned this for way too long."

I began to shake my head, but then my mother's words came back to me. _I ran away._

As if reading my mind, he suggested eagerly, "We could run away together."

"Damion, that's insane."

"Why?" He was searching my face, his eyes feverishly bright. "We could do it, Odile. You know we could."

"No, I don't." The thought of leaving was equal parts terrifying and exhilarating.

"Why not?" He gave me a small shake. "C'mon, Odile."

I made the mistake of looking into his eyes, and felt my defenses begin to crumble. "You're insane. You know that, right?"

"Is that a yes?"

"It would be reckless," I allowed. "Especially considering how we were planning on relying on our parents for financial support."

He beamed. "Yep."

"Not only that, but it would be stupid, too."

"All the best things are."

I sighed. "Damion, are you serious? Would you really go through with this?"

He released my arms to thump one fist against his chest, putting a foot on top of the basketball and striking an overly majestic pose. "I, Damion Barry Jun, promise to take care of you in sickness and in health if you run away with me. Oh, and 'til death do us part, of course."

My eyebrows had hiked halfway up my forehead, the last of my tears drying. "Well, that was facepalm-worthy."

"Come on, Odile," he pleaded, dropping the act. "Don't make me beg."

"Isn't that what you're doing?"

He mock-slapped me. "Stop being cynical and just answer the question."

I shook my head, even as a tiny smile stole onto my face. "You… have an amazing talent for talking me into things."

He whooped, taking my hands and spinning me around. "You won't regret it!"

Unable to help it, I began to laugh. I swatted at him until he stopped. "Where have I heard that before? Oh, wait." I slapped my forehead, pretending to have remembered. "There was that time when you convinced me to break into the school, and then we were caught and had to mop the floors for the whole year; that time when you convinced me to pull an all-nighter with you to cram for that pokemon psychology test, and we ended up falling asleep during it-"

"It's not my fault you're a pushover," he teased.

My Xtransceiver buzzed before I could retort, and I took it out, already knowing that it would be my mom texting to say that dinner was ready. Stuffing it back into my pocket, I tilted my head back to meet Damion's eyes again. "I have to go, but text me later so that we can figure out a plan, okay?"

"Alright." Optimism seemed to radiate from every pore of his skin, and I rolled my eyes, feeling my heart give a momentary flutter. "I'm fining you one million if you talk yourself out of it, okay?"

"Okay. Bye, Damion. Thanks." I gave him a hug before jogging off. As soon as I turned away I could feel the doubt creeping into me, the confidence draining away with every step that I took away from him.

After all, what if something happened to me or Damion during our travels? What if something went wrong?

What if my father was right?

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

*Edited

_Break Away, by Kelly Clarkson: I think that this song describes Odile and Damion's desire to leave town perfectly, and the reason behind it. Further explanation below._

_Grew up in a small town  
>And when the rain would fall down<br>I'd just stare out my window_

_Dreaming of what could be_  
><em>And if I'd end up happy<em>  
><em>I would pray<em>

_Trying hard to reach out_  
><em>But when I'd try to speak out<em>  
><em>Felt like no one could hear me<em>

_Wanted to belong here_  
><em>But something felt so wrong here<em>  
><em>So I pray<em>  
><em>I could break away<em>

_I'll spread my wings and I'll learn how to fly_  
><em>I'll do what it takes 'til I touch the sky<em>  
><em>And I'll make a wish, take a chance, make a change<em>  
><em>And break away<em>

_Out of the darkness and into the sun_  
><em>But I won't forget all the ones that I loved<em>  
><em>I'll take a risk, take a chance, make a change<em>  
><em>And break away<em>

*I imagine the lyrics above to be from Odile's POV, and the lyrics below to be from Damion's.

_Wanna feel the warm breeze_  
><em>Sleep under a palm tree<em>  
><em>Feel the rush of the ocean<em>

_Get onboard a fast train_  
><em>Travel on a jet plane, far away<em>  
><em>And break away<em>

_I'll spread my wings and I'll learn how to fly_  
><em>I'll do what it takes 'til I touch the sky<em>  
><em>And I'll make a wish, take a chance, make a change<em>  
><em>And break away<em>

_Out of the darkness and into the sun_  
><em>I won't forget all the ones that I loved<em>  
><em>I gotta take a risk, take a chance, make a change<em>  
><em>And break away<em>

_Buildings with a hundred floors_  
><em>Swinging 'round revolving doors<em>  
><em>Maybe I don't know where they'll take me but<em>  
><em>Gotta keep moving on, moving on<em>  
><em>Fly away, break away<em>

_I'll spread my wings and I'll learn how to fly_  
><em>Though it's not easy to tell you goodbye<em>  
><em>I gotta take a risk, take a chance, make a change<em>  
><em>And break away<em>

_Out of the darkness and into the sun_  
><em>But I won't forget the place I come from<em>  
><em>I gotta take a risk, take a chance, make a change<em>  
><em>And break away, break away, break away<em>


	3. Shadow of the Day

**Disclaimer: **Champion Jack: Thanks so much for the review! WhiteRose: Thank you! Yeah, I like nuzlockes, too : ) Ferah: Thanks for the review, fave and alert! It means so much to me! Silver: Thanks for reviewing! Autumn: As usual, I love your reviews. I like Kelly Clarkson, too, and let's just pretend that that Odile X Brendan oneshot took place in an alternate universe or something ; )

Song for this chapter: 'Shadow of the Day', by Linkin Park.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

**Chapter Two: Shadow of the Day**

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Two days later I found myself alone in my room, my messenger bag opened on my bed. I sat beside it, staring at the wall.

_What do you pack when you're running away from home? _I wondered, and felt guilt ripple through me for the thousandth time that day. I was running away from home. _I _was. Me.

Soon, there would be no more sleeping in a bed. No more getting scolded for never putting away my clothes. No more lounging around in the living room reading my Old World books, or going to the mall to hang out with friends. No more _normal._

My hands went clammy. I moved slowly around my room, packing things as I went: two pairs of pajamas; a sleeping bag; toiletries; my life's savings; a few dozen socks; undergarments; a fold-up tent; some long-lasting rations; a rechargeable flashlight; my journal. When I was done the bag was filled to the brim, and bulging in some areas. Picking it up, I winced at how heavy it was, and let it drop back onto the bed.

My Xtransceiver hummed, and I looked down to see a message from Damion. _Meet me at my place once every1 is asleep._

_K, _I texted back.

_U ready? _he asked.

_Ready as I'll ever be. C u soon, _I replied. After wringing my hands for a small eternity, I shoved my bag under my bed in case one of my parents walked in. Sprawling out on my mattress, I took a deep breath and punched in a familiar number.

My friend Livia answered on the third ring. "Alcoholics anonymous: please state your last name and address."

"Good one, Liv. Real original."

"What, too cliché?" There was a smile in her voice. "I've been trying out ways to answer the phone for the whole day, and that seems to be the favourite with telemarketers. The other option is, 'Hello, you've reached Arceus, how can I help you?' but I figured that that one's been used already."

I tried to laugh, but the tightness of my throat made it sound as if I was being strangled. "I'd say stick to the alcoholics anonymous- your mom will get a kick out of that one."

"I know right?" She laughed into the phone. "Anyways, what's new with you? How'd the license-getting go? I am _so _jealous of you, by the way; I'm still kicking myself for not passing the qualification test. It's bogus how they make you wait a _full year _before being eligible to take it again."

"It went… well," I hedged. "But, about hanging out tomorrow…"

She groaned. "Don't say you're bailing on me."

"But that would be lying," I said, struggling to keep my tone light.

"Aw, man. Did you know that Damion's not going, either? Ugh, I'll be stuck with Maxton, and I swear that that guy _lives _to torment me… Wait." She stopped mid-rant. "Are you and Damion doing something together tomorrow? Is that why you're ditching me?"

"No, Livia-"

"You _are_, aren't you?" Her tone turned mischievous. "I won't blab or anything, I promise- just tell me what's going on! Have you two finally admitted that you like each other?"

It was my turn to groan. "No. Listen, Livia, I called to say-"

"So you admit that you two have feelings for each other!" There was a sharp sound on the other end, as if she had squealed. "After your date tomorrow, I am so going to hunt you down and get every single detail out of you. Bye!" Before I could intervene, she clicked off.

"Goodbye, Liv," I said into the receiver, sadness welling up in my chest.

My movements were slow as I placed my Xtransceiver down on the blanket beside me, and then got up to retrieve my journal. I flipped through the pages, looking to take my mind off things.

I ran my fingers along the page. _Once upon a time, there was me, and being poetic was all I had… I was a writer without inspiration and a girl with everything to prove…_

_And that's exactly why I have to go, _I thought. _This is my last summer as a teenager, my last summer with no responsibility. _My eyes drifted to the letter of acceptance the community college had sent me, collecting dust on the dresser. _Mom is right. This is my last chance to do everything I've always wanted to do. If I don't go, I'll regret it for as long as I live._

Laying back down, I focused on how the bedsprings sank under my weight, trying to commit it to memory. Then I put my tuque on, pulling the edge of it down over my eyes in an attempt to block out the world for a while.

When I was sure that the house was asleep, I slowly lifted myself off the bed. Slipping my journal into the back pocket of my jeans, I stood up straight, and slung my bag around my neck. Tiptoeing across the creaky floorboards, I eased the door open and crept into the hallway. From my parents' room, I could hear my father snoring, and paused in front of their door.

"Sorry," I whispered. "Please understand."

Taking a deep breath, I descended the staircase. I unlocked the door, and nudged it open with my foot. A blast of chilled night air greeted me.

My first step onto the street was small, uncertain. It felt almost criminal to be out here when I knew that my father was still asleep, completely unaware of how I was betraying him.

_No, that's not right. _This _is right._

_I need to do this._

My second step forward was stronger, more resolved. Placing one foot in front of the other, I picked up speed, and by the fifth step I was flying.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

When I reached Damion's house, all the lights were on inside.

Confused, I crept closer. Before I could blink- before I could even comprehend what it was that I was seeing- Damion came hurtling out the door, arms pumping like pistons. He sprinted past me, snagging my hand as he went and dragging me along.

"Damion, what the hell?" I gasped, fighting not to trip. His mother's shouts hounded our retreating backs. "I thought you said that your mom was okay with you leaving!"

"I thought she was, too." His grin was wild, reckless. "Don't worry, she'll get over it. She was just getting cold feet about it, so I decided to get out of there before she changed her mind."

"Are you sure?"

Mrs. Jun had stopped yelling. I twisted my neck to see her still standing there, the width of the doorway making her look as small as a child.

"Yeah, I'm sure. She went on a journey before university, too, you know." He gave my hand a reassuring squeeze, his voice fizzing over with excitement. It was so easy to get caught up in Damion: looking into his eyes made all my doubts go away, if only for a moment, and he had enough enthusiasm to get drunk off of.

Squeezing back, I decided to let reality fade into the background, and focused on the sound of the blood rushing in my ears.

Home disappeared behind us, and blackness stretched on ahead.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

*Edited

_A/N:_

_First off, yes, I know, it's a short chapter. The next chapter- the real beginning to this story- should be longer._

_Secondly, yes, high school finishes early for the teens in Sinnoh. Both Damion and Odile are seventeen, and both have graduated._

_Finally, the 'Old World' mention will be become clearer later on._

_Shadow of the Day, by Linkin Park: This is a song from Odile's POV that I believe suits her reasons for leaving, and how regretful she feels about her decision. No further explanation needed._

_I close both locks below the window  
>I close both blinds and turn away<em>

_Sometimes solutions aren't so simple_  
><em>Sometimes good bye's the only way<em>

_And the sun will set for you_  
><em>The sun will set for you<em>

_And the shadow of the day_  
><em>Will embrace the world in grey<em>

_And the sun will set for you_

_In cards and flowers on your window_  
><em>Your friends all plead for you to stay<em>

_Sometimes beginnings aren't so simple_  
><em>Sometimes good bye's the only way<em>

_And the sun will set for you  
>The sun will set for you<em>

_And the shadow of the day_  
><em>Will embrace the world in grey<em>

_And the sun will set for you_

_And the shadow of the day_  
><em>Will embrace the world in grey<em>

_And the sun will set for you_

_And the shadow of the day_  
><em>Will embrace the world in grey<em>

_And the sun will set for you_


	4. Skyway Avenue

**Disclaimer: **Mystery Reviewer: Yep, this is the chapter that they do! Thank you; it speeds up from here on out! Olih: Thank you for all the faves/ alerts! IamRAWRkaythanks: Thanks for the story alert! Silver: Thanks! I like Damion, too; he's definitely one of the cutest rivals, in my opinion.

Song for this chapter: 'Skyway Avenue', by We The Kings.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

**Chapter Three: Skyway Avenue**

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"Come on, O. I'm fining you one million if you can't keep up."

"It's not my fault that my legs are so much shorter than yours." Our teasing was the only noise in Route One. Trees loomed in silence on either side of us, their leaves frostbitten. "By the way, why did we decide that heading out at one in the morning was a good idea? Because it wasn't."

His hair shone like brass in the moonlight. "It would be boring if we ran away in the middle of the day. Besides, we only get to do this once- we might as well make it as exciting as possible."

"You _would _see the logic in that." Despite my words, I couldn't help but grin: his good mood was contagious. Besides, I always had loved to look at the stars.

My exhale rose into the air in a puff of breath. Fighting a shiver, I moved closer to him, tilting my head back to watch the sky as we walked.

"Are you cold?" He reached over to hug my fingers with his, our height difference forcing him to bend slightly over.

His touch burned, and sent a slow flush of heat creeping up my arm. "I'm alright."

"Scared, then?"

I lowered my chin. Nocturnal pokemon moved through the undergrowth, their eyes gleaming in the dark. "Oh, yes," I snickered, "shinx, starly, and bidoof, oh my!"

"Bidoof are terrifying," he answered solemnly. "They like to gnaw on sarcastic brunettes named Odile."

"And starly like to peck at annoying blondes named Damion," I retorted.

We managed to keep straight faces for a full five seconds before dissolving into laughter. It bubbled up from somewhere deep inside me, and with it was released all of my pent-up anxiety.

"And shinx-"

He broke off as an inhuman wail split the air. Clapping our hands to our ears, we exchanged a wince, and waited for it to stop.

When it did, Damion was the first to speak. "What _was _that?" he demanded, his hands dropping back to his sides.

"I have no idea." Unease gripped me. Looking around us, I saw a familiar gap in the trees, and realised where on Route One we were. "We're right by Lake Verity- do you think it came from there?"

"I don't know." Anticipation settled over his features. "There's only one way to find out, though."

I held fast to his sleeve. "Damion, no. We have no idea what that was, and rushing off to go check it out can only end badly."

"Don't be a worrywart." His tawny eyes were lit with an expression that I was all too familiar with. "C'mon, Odile, where's your sense of adventure? What if it's something interesting?" His face grew even more animated. "What if it's mesprit?"

"Mesprit is a myth, and you know it."

Suddenly, his face froze. With his eyes locked on something behind me, he stepped back, his jaw slack with horror.

Ice ran down my spine. Panicking, I turned, and saw-

Nothing.

I blinked. By the time realisation dawned, he had slipped out of my grasp and had begun running towards the lake.

"That was a dirty trick!" My shouts disrupted a flock of nesting starly, causing them to fly off into the night. "Damion, get your lying ass _back here!"_

He melted into the darkness. Swearing under my breath, I kicked a nearby rock in an attempt to make myself feel better, and then chased after him.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"Damion," I called as I picked my way through the underbrush. "D- oh my Arceus!" My hand was grabbed, and I found myself on the ground beside a crouching Damion. "What-"

He shushed me, preoccupied with peering out around the bush we were concealed behind. "Quick, look over there."

I followed his gaze. We were staring out across Lake Verity, the still waters reflecting the night sky like a mirror. "I don't see anything," I whispered.

"There, by that persim tree," he murmured, pointing. "There are people over there."

I squinted. Now that I knew what to look for I could see two figures standing against the backdrop of the lake: one was a smear of blue, the other clad in a darker colour.

"Now, listen." We fell silent, and I strained to hear. Soon enough the strangers' voices were carried to us by the breeze, the sentences fading in and out.

"…in order to control the flowing time, the expanding space," one was saying, the voice distinctly male. "Though it has fled, it will not be able to the next time we…"

"You are certain?" asked the other, sounding to be a man as well. "St… the boy… I will help, in return for the whereabouts of Ch… because I…"

"What do you think they're talking about?" Damion muttered, a pucker between his brows.

"I have no idea," I breathed.

We waited, but the two had stopped talking. The darker-clad one straightened, and, as jerky as a puppet being pulled by strings, whipped around in our direction. Both Damion and I flattened ourselves to the ground. My skin crawled- although it was dark out, I couldn't shake the feeling that he had somehow seen us.

"We have to get out of here," Damion whispered.

"Obviously," I hissed.

There was the sharp crack of branches breaking underfoot, and the next thing I knew I was being hauled up into the air by the back of my coat.

"Thieves!" a voice bellowed in my ear.

Damion scrambled to his feet. "Put her down!" he shouted, his eyes showing white all around. "Leave her alone!"

"What have you done with the documents?" the voice thundered.

"We didn't steal anything!" I shrilled, panicking all the more at how scared Damion looked.

"Then what are you doing, lurking around here at this time of night?"

"We heard something strange and came to investigate," I blurted.

"There are some shady people near the lake," Damion added forcefully. "Let her go; we're not thieves."

I was lowered slowly to the ground, and then pushed into Damion's arms. I clung onto him, too stunned to do anything else.

"Stay here," the person ordered, and I heard the sound of boots clomping away. Blinking hard and fast, I looked up at Damion, who stared down at me with the same shocked expression that I was probably wearing.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"I think so." The words came out wobbly.

The sound of someone approaching sent my heart into a sprint, and I cowered, steeling myself for another assault.

"Who're you?" I heard Damion ask, his voice devoid of its usual lightheartedness.

"Who are _you?"_ When it became clear that no attack was forthcoming, I opened my eyes. In front of us stood a boy that looked to be our age, wrapped in an oversized lab coat.

"Thieves, apparently," I said, trying for dryness but ending up having a voice crack instead.

His round face crumpled. "Is that what the professor said?"

"I don't care who that guy is," said Damion hotly. "He assaulted Odile."

The boy's brown eyes widened. "O-Oh, my Arceus, I am so sorry- it's just that lots of the professor's research has been going missing lately, and some more went missing tonight; he was so angry, he just took off-"

"Still, he had no right to accuse us like that." My voice hadn't lost its quaver.

"Sorry," the boy repeated meekly. "Really."

Damion blew a curl off his face, still miffed. "So who are you, anyway?"

"I'm Lucas, Professor Rowan's assistant." He ran a hand through his dark hair. "What are your names?"

"I'm Damion, and this is Odile." Some of the stiffness left Damion's tone.

Lucas managed a shy smile. "Well, it's nice to meet you both."

"Lucas," the professor's voice boomed, causing us all to jump.

Lucas straightened as if zapped by a pikachu. "H-here, Professor!"

An elderly man with a beard as white as his coat pushed his way through the foliage. "I attempted to apprehend the two suspicious individuals, but, alas, they fled," he rumbled. "There was blood on the ground. That, along with the cry I heard earlier, leaves me to conclude that they were causing distress to mesprit. Make certain to record that."

"Will do, Professor," Lucas squeaked.

The professor turned to me and Damion. "I apologize for suspecting you. It was wrong of me. However, I must ask what the two of you are doing out here at this time."

"We're travelling," said Damion, but his tone of defiance gave us away.

His eyes were sharp behind the glasses he wore. "And yet you have no pokemon between the two of you."

The two of us shared a grimace.

"Now, give me the truth."

"We started travelling tonight," Damion said defensively. "And no, we don't have pokemon yet, but we will. We're licensed."

"So you decided to begin travelling at one in the morning?" Before we could answer he waved us down, shaking his head. "You're just another pair of runaways ignoring the wisdom of adults in favour of seeking out a grand adventure. Headstrong people like you worry me."

"We…" My voice faltered. "There's more to it than that."

"Is there, now?" Silence fell, heavy as an axe. Neither Damion nor I seemed to know what to say.

The professor sighed. "Lucas, are the guest rooms in the lab still in order?"

"Yes, s-sir."

"Good." Professor Rowan slewed his eyes back to us. "The two of you will accompany us back to my lab in Sandgem. I will take you home in the morning."

Behind me, I could feel Damion tense. "N-"

I squeezed his arm, silently warning him not to make things worse. He shot me a betrayed look, but quietened.

"Thank you," I told the professor.

He grunted. As soon as he turned away, Damion frowned at me, looking scandalized.

_Trust me, _I mouthed.

"C'mon, folks." Lucas put each of his hands on our backs, propelling us forward. Damion resisted, but, after another pinch to the arm, let Lucas steer us away from the lake.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

By the time we reached the professor's lab in Sandgem Town, it was light out: the sky was streaked with the colours of dawn, the grass tipped with dew. My shoulder was already aching from carrying my luggage, and I flopped onto the bed in the guest bedroom of the lab, grateful to put it down. Heaving a sigh, I let my eyes wander to the walls, where various pictures were hung: a dark-haired toddler in a lab coat; what looked to be the professor when he was younger, bearded and smiling; a beautiful blonde girl holding the hand of a pale-haired young man, with a younger dark-haired boy clinging to the girl's arm; the same girl older, even more gorgeous but lacking a smile; the professor holding a buneary.

Not two minutes later, Damion let himself in.

"What are you doing?" he exclaimed, taking in the sight of me spread-eagled on the bedspread.

"Keep your voice down," I whispered, sitting up.

He came closer, lowering his voice. "Seriously, Odile, what are you doing? We have to get out of here before that old guy wakes up and drags us back."

"I know, I know. I was just taking a breather." Stretching, I slid off the bed, and put my bag back on. "Come on, I saw a back door down the hall. If we're quiet, we can slip out without waking anyone."

"Sounds good." He flashed me a smile and turned, his backpack bumping quietly between his shoulder blades.

"Oh, and Damion?"

"Hm? What?"

I smacked him on the arm, scowling. "I _told _you that going to inspect that noise would end badly."

"Hey, that tickles."

Huffing, I hit him once more. "One day I'm going to take up martial arts classes just so I can make you listen to me for once."

Smothering a grin, he opened the door wider, and we both slipped out. I closed it behind us, moving to take the lead as we cautiously made our way down the hall. Early-morning sunlight slanted in from the windows, lighting up the foyer. We crept past desks with stacks of research piled atop them, and managed not to bump any of the machinery.

My hand closed around the handle of the door. With a sigh of relief, I pushed it open.

And that was when a small shape dropped down from the ceiling, and latched onto my face.

Screaming in reflex, I staggered back, knocking into Damion. He cried out in surprise, and together we lost our balance, crashing into the machine that squatted by the doorway.

We fetched up against the mechanism. The thing- a chimchar, I was shocked to see- detached itself from me, and chittered angrily.

Damion tried to sit upright, but the mechanism gave way, and we fell. Trying to get my hands in front of me so that I wouldn't face-plant, I felt my forefinger accidentally press against a button of some sort, and heard the sound of metal hitting the floor.

My palms hit the ground hard, sending little shockwaves of pain up my arms. Wincing, I pushed myself into a sitting position. The chimchar continued to glare.

Just as I was about to shoo it away, I heard Damion gasp. Turning my head, my eyes went first to his stunned expression, and then to what he was staring at.

Two half-open pokeballs laid on the floor, knocked off of the machine because of us. Beside them sat a turtwig and a piplup, looking around bewilderedly.

"What is going on here?" Professor Rowan came striding in from the hall. Lucas rushed in after him.

"It was an accident!" I burst out, the professor's expression shooting ice into my veins. "We- This chimchar attacked, and we fell into the machine, and…It was an accident, I swear!"

Lucas darted forwards, bending down to scoop up the chimchar. "I am so s-sorry," he stammered, the words leapfrogging over each other. "Jeremy doesn't listen to me, and he acts as our security system, and I- I'm sorry." Jeremy continued to snarl at me from over Lucas's shoulder, his canines long and pointed.

The professor ignored him. "Why are these pokemon out of their pokeballs?" he asked us.

Damion rubbed the back of his neck. "When we fell, I think we opened them by accident."

"You _what?" _I shrank back at the fury in the professor's voice.

"Like Odile said, it was an accident," said Damion defensively.

"Do you have any idea what you've done?" Professor Rowan bellowed. His face flooded with colour. "Any idea at all?"

We exchanged startled glances.

"You said that you were licensed, did you not?" The two of us nodded hesitantly. "When a licensed trainer opens an unclaimed pokeball, that pokeball is then digitally registered to that trainer. Therefore, if a pokemon is in that pokeball, then that pokemon also registers to that trainer."

I blinked, having heard that exact same speech from the instructor before I attained my licence. "Oh…"

"Indeed. Since those pokemon and pokeballs were used solely for scientific observation, they were considered 'unclaimed'." He took off his glasses, and pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. "It is a pity, but it cannot be helped. Sit down, the both of you."

Stiffly, we got up, and sat in the chairs he pointed to. "I am Rowan," he rumbled, taking a seat opposite us, "and I specialize in pokemon mythology. Due to the recent thefts and lack of funding, my assistants and I get by on the money that the traditional studies of evolution and species provide. Those two pokemon were given to me for such research." He nodded at the piplup and turtwig, who seemed to be half-asleep from being woken up so early. "Since the two of you 'claimed' these pokemon, we will be unable to return them after we finish our studies: that will cost us yet more money, which we desperately need."

"I'm sorry." I felt like he had punched me in the stomach. "It's my fault, really. I can pay you." Swallowing, I began rifling through my bag for my life's savings. "I don't have much, but..."

"No." The sternness of his tone made me stop and look up at him. "To make up for your clumsiness, what I want is for the two of you to carry on my field work for me."

"Field work?" echoed Damion.

"Yes. We are extremely short-staffed at the moment, and, since the two of you said that you are travelling, I would like you to record data for me." He swivelled in his seat to address Lucas briefly. "Lucas, retrieve two pokedexes from storage." Turning back to us, he cleared his throat. "At the moment, the League is giving us funding for the study of the rarity of pokemon. To do my research, you will have to catch the first pokemon you encounter on a Route, and send them to me via PC so that I may catalogue their data."

Damion opened his mouth- probably to object- but closed it just as quickly, seeming to realise that we were in no position to argue.

Lucas jogged back into the room, two red, Xtransceiver-sized devices in hand. "Ah. Thank you." The professor's bristly eyebrows lifted. "Do either of you know how to work a pokedex?"

"I do." Pokedexes were equipment that only pokeologists used, but one of my teachers last year had given us some basic training on their usage.

"So do I." The turtwig had tottered over to Damion, and had begun rubbing up against his leg.

"That simplifies things, then." He pressed the dexes into our hands. "During your travels, record data for me. If you do that, then I will not make you pay for the pokemon nor the repairs to the incubator."

"Yes, sir." Though I tried my best to keep my voice polite, my throat had constricted, threatening to cut off the words.

Damion, on the other hand, looked ecstatic. "Wow! Thanks," he said, examining the dex appreciatively. His eyes dropped down to the turtwig. "I guess you're mine, huh?" The turtwig wiggled its stumpy legs in reply.

I felt something tugging on my leg of my pants. Looking down, I saw the piplup gazing up at me, its head cocked to the side. Flipping the pokedex open, a small red laser ran up and down the pokemon, collecting data. Then the generic female voice read aloud its information. _"Piplup: The Penguin Pokemon. It lives along shores in northern countries. A skilled swimmer, it dives for over ten minutes to hunt. Gender: male."_

Closing the dex, I stared down at the pokemon. His ovoid eyes stared back at me, holding sun-touched oceans in their depths.

I stood. Stooping down to pick up the pokeball I had made fall, I pressed my thumb against the center button. A white light enveloped the piplup, and before I could blink it dematerialised, returning to the capsule. I snapped it shut.

"Would you like to stay for breakfast?"

"No thank you, professor." If I ate anything, it would probably all come back up again. "I'd… I would just prefer to leave now, if that's alright with you."

Tearing his gaze away from his pokemon, Damion blinked at me, a quizzical tilt to his brows. I shook my head at him.

"Very well. Make sure to contact me at least once a month with the data. Good luck." He nodded to me.

My insides had twisted themselves into knots. Pushing the door open, I gasped in relief as fresh air washed my face. From behind me, I could hear Damion start after me, but get called back by the professor.

As soon as I was outside, I sagged against the outside of the lab. The pokedex felt as heavy as a stone in my left hand, the pokeball slick with my sweat in my right.

The very thing that I had wanted to avoid- _prayed _to avoid- was happening.

_I am going to have to challenge the League._

Leaning my forehead against the wall, I squeezed my eyes shut and willed myself not to scream.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

*Edited

_A/N:_

_Everything- Odile's reaction to the professor's request, the whole League thing, everything- will be explained next chapter._

_So, welcome to my nuzlocke. : )_

_Rules for this run:_

_Must catch/nickname the first pokemon of every new route/area._

_If a pokemon faints, it is considered dead._

_No catching/using legendaries._

_Skyway Avenue, by We The Kings: To me, these song lyrics can describe two things: how Odile draws strength from Damion, or Damion's desire to start living his life. No further explanation needed._

_She said let's change our luck  
>This night is all we've got<br>Drive fast until we crash  
>This dead end life<br>Sweet dreams that won't come true  
>I'd leave it all for you<br>Brick walls keep closing in  
>Let's make a run tonight<em>

_Blinded by the lights_  
><em>Hold you through forever<em>  
><em>Never let you go<em>

_Cause if you jump I will jump too_  
><em>We will fall together<em>  
><em>From the building's ledge<em>  
><em>Never looking back at what we've done<em>  
><em>We'll say it was love<em>  
><em>Cause I would die for you<em>  
><em>On skyway avenue<em>

_She said don't change your mind_  
><em>Let's leave this town behind<em>  
><em>We'll race right off the cliff<em>  
><em>They will remember this<em>  
><em>It all got so mundane<em>  
><em>With you I'm back again<em>  
><em>Just take me by the hand<em>  
><em>We're close to the edge<em>

_Blinded by the lights_  
><em>Hold you through forever<em>  
><em>Never let you go<em>

_Cause if you jump i will jump too_  
><em>We will fall together<em>  
><em>From the building's ledge<em>  
><em>Never looking back at what we've done<em>  
><em>We'll say it was love<em>  
><em>Cause I would die for you<em>  
><em>On skyway avenue<em>

_Where are your guts to fly_  
><em>Soaring through, through the night<em>  
><em>And if you take that last step<em>  
><em>I'll follow you<em>  
><em>Leave the edge and fly<em>  
><em>We're finally alive<em>

_Cause if you jump I will jump too_  
><em>We will fall together<em>  
><em>From the building's ledge<em>  
><em>Never looking back at what we've done<em>  
><em>We'll say it was love<em>  
><em>Cause I would die for you<em>  
><em>On skyway avenue<em>  
><em>So what's left to prove<em>  
><em>We have made it through<em>


	5. Let Me Get What I Want

**Disclaimer: **Champion Jack: Thanks! AshKetchumDarkSide: Thank you! Silver: Thank you so much for reviewing! WhiteRose: Thanks so much! ScrougeofHell: Thanks for adding this story to your favourites/alerts! Ferah: Hey, no worries! Thanks for reviewing!

Song for this chapter: 'Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want', by The Smiths.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

**Chapter Four: Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want**

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

_I'm going to have to challenge the League._

Just thinking the words squeezed the breath from my lungs.

"Odile!" The lab door banged open, and Damion stepped out. "Hey, what's your deal?"

"What's my _deal?" _I rounded on him, appalled. "How can you ask me what my deal is?"

Understanding- the kind forged by years friendship- cleared his face. "Odile, just because the old guy asked us to catch pokemon for him doesn't mean you have to do the League challenge."

"Yes, it does." My voice sounded thin to my own ears. "If I don't take the challenge my trainer card with expire, and my pokemon will be taken away from me. If that happens I won't be able to do Prof. Rowan's field work, and he'll call my parents on me."

"Yeah, but…" He reached up to rub the back of his head. "I thought that you were going to try out the League challenge, anyway."

"My plan was to try my luck at contests, like my mom. I took courses for it and everything." I looked down at the capsule in my hand, and swallowed. "Being a coordinator is one thing, but pitting pokemon against each other for sport? I can't."

"But-"

"It's different for you. You have a Battle Frontier member for a dad; you grew up with battling."

He tried again. "But you got your trainer's license."

"To show that I _could. _All I wanted was for my parents to see that I _could _get it. I didn't want..." Frustrated, I ground my teeth together.

Damion's expression softened. Leaning over, he set his hand on the top of my head and ruffled my hair. "Make the best out of it. You want to prove to your parents that you're strong, right? Well, this is an awesome opportunity."

"I guess…"

"Besides, you aced the strategy portion of the trainer qualification test: you'll be fine, even with a weak pokemon like your piplup. Also, just think of how amazed your parents will be if you take the challenge." He moved his hand to pat me on the shoulder. "You'll kick the League's ass, O."

"You think so?"

"I know so."

Unsettled, I looked again at the pokeball in my hand. _If I challenged the League and earned badges, my father would never call me weak or useless again... __  
><em>

"Oh, and I also think that it would be better if we travelled separately."

My thoughts screeched to a halt. _"What?"_

He scratched at his nose sheepishly. "I was planning on doing my dad's League route, starting with the Oreburgh gym and then moving on to Canalave, and so on. I know that you probably won't want to stick around here for that long…"

It was true that I wanted to get as far away from home as I could, but still. "What was the point in us running away _together, _then?"

He shrugged. "I thought of it just now. It wouldn't be all that different from travelling together- we'd still meet up and stuff."

Panic bubbled up inside me. Trying to tamp down on it, I put my hands on my hips. "We need to travel together, if only for safety. I mean, who else is going to chase after you whenever something dangerous catches your attention?"

_Please don't make me do this alone. You're the brave one, not me._

"Tell you what." He began shifting his weight, as if warming up for a race. "Let's travel separately to Oreburgh, and meet up at the pokecenter there. That way we can test it out. Sound good?"

"I…"

"I mean, you still have the Town Map app installed in your phone, right?"

"Right." I forced the corners of my lips up. "See you in Oreburgh, then."

He beamed, and looped an arm around my shoulders. "Phone me if you get lost or anything, alright?" Then he headed off in the direction of Route Two, all but prancing in excitement.

My heart did a slow, meaningless somersault inside my chest. It was funny how quickly things could change: a few hours ago I was brimming with anticipation, but now I couldn't have felt more dispirited.

A chirp brought me back from my thoughts. Dragging my eyes away from Damion's retreating form, I looked down to see that my piplup had let himself out of his pokeball.

Stowing my pokedex away, I crouched down. "I'm Odile," I told him. "I guess we'll be travelling together from now on."

The pokemon cocked his head, and looked at me curiously. Then he lunged.

Crying out in surprise, I fell back. But instead of getting pecked, as I expected, all I felt was the sudden coolness of air on the top of my head.

I blinked. The piplup was nuzzling my tuque, his eyes bright with laughter.

Reaching out a trembling hand, I took the hat, and put it on him. "It looks better on you, anyway… Hatter."

All at once, I felt my throat swell.

"I shouldn't be nicknaming you." My voice wobbled. "It's better not to get attached." _But who am I kidding? _I thought. _Of course I'll get attached. I already am._

Hatter stared at me, his expression entirely too trusting. I imagined him bathed in blood, beaten and broken, because that's what he would be if I lost a battle. He wouldn't just faint, like the pokemon in the battle simulations at school did: he would die. He would die, and it would be my fault.

_You're not fit for travel. _My father's voice came to me, reinforcing my words. _And you certainly aren't fit for handling pokemon. How will you react when one of them dies, and it's your fault? There is no way to get over that. No matter what you do, it will stay with you forever. _In my memory, his voice lowered. _Believe me, Odile. I should know._

"Odile?" I straightened to find Lucas in the doorway, and was relieved to see that he no longer had his chimchar with him.

"Oh. Hi." I wiped at my eyes. "I was just leaving."

"That's why I'm here. The professor told me to give you these." He held out his hand. Five minimized pokeballs sat in his palm. "I-it's for your research."

"Thank you." Surprised, I took the capsules and dropped them into my bag.

He opened his mouth to reply, but the professor's voice cut him off. "Lucas! Come and assist me in straightening the incubator."

"Sorry, O-O-Odile. Gotta go," he said, tripping over my name.

"That's alright. Goodbye, Lucas." After giving a small wave, I recalled Hatter and started down the beaten path.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Sunbeams sifted through the leaves of trees of Route 202, as cold and bright as icicles. I frowned, peering at the map application on my phone. "According to this, I'm about thirty minutes away from Jubilife," I muttered. The blip on the screen that marked my current location blinked red. "If I cut through h-"

I missed a step, and found myself knee-high in a tangle of nanab thorns. Swearing, I began to try and tear myself free.

A hiss stopped me.

Sweat gathered in the palms of my hands when a shinx appeared from the clump of bristles, clearly agitated. I tried to think of what my teacher had lectured. _Like prehistoric canines, looking a wild shinx in the eye is considered a sign of aggression. If confronted by one, do not make eye contact. Back away slowly._

I tried to inch backwards, but the barbs dug into my jeans like fingers.

_It will not attack unless provoked._

The shinx's amber eyes burned. Its muscles were coiled in a spring, and electricity crackled along its pelt.

_Although the electricity of a shinx is not lethal, four to five zaps can fell a teenager._

Trying not to make any sudden movements, I slipped my hand into my bag, and clamped my hand on a pokeball. Fumbling, I whipped it at the shinx.

My aim was way off. It hit a nearby tree and hit the ground, splitting open. The shinx unsheathed its claws.

Reaching back into my bag, I curled my fingers around Hatter's pokeball and called upon all the cool confidence I had possessed while taking the trainer qualification test.

_If facing a shinx in battle, remember not to attack head-on. A wild shinx thinks only offensively, not strategically._

Just as it launched itself at me, I released Hatter. They collided in a shower of sparks and white light.

"Back away from the thorns, Hatter." He did so, pressing his back against the trunk of a tree. The shinx abandoned me in favour of going after him instead.

He tossed me a worried glance as the shinx neared him. "Wait," I warned him. The sound of my own heartbeat filled my ears.

Trembling, he obeyed.

I waited until the shinx sprang to yell, "Duck!"

Hatter threw himself to the ground. The shinx soared right past him, and hit the tree paws-first. Growling, it made to turn around, but couldn't. Its claws were lodged deep into the bark, making it unable to get free.

Digging around in my bag, I grabbed a pokeball and tossed it. This time it nicked the back of the shinx's head, and long tendrils of light wrapped around it, pulling it into the capsule.

The pokeball snapped shut. For a moment it shook violently, as if the shinx was thrashing inside of it, and I feared that it would escape.

A click signalled that the shinx was successfully captured, and I breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Hatter," I said, twisting free from the thorns. "Good job."

He chirruped, and toddled over to me. I patted his tuque-clad head before returning him to his capsule.

The shinx's pokeball was cold to the touch, and felt impossibly light when I picked it up. Pressing my thumb against the center button, the capsule opened, and the shinx materialised.

Although it was still bristling, it made no move to attack me: it had the same reluctant tranquility that all captured pokemon possessed. Pulling out my pokedex, I scanned it. _"Shinx: The Flash Pokemon. Its forelegs have a muscle-based system of generating electricity. Its body shines if endangered. Gender: female."_

"I think I'll call you Winry." Putting the dex back, I offered a hand for her to sniff. Instead of biting me, as I thought she would, she turned her nose away.

Confused at her behaviour, I tried to think back to what else my teacher had said. _They are carnivorous…_

Her eyes were focused on something to my right. Following her gaze, I found myself staring into the clump of thorns.

_They have extraordinary eyesight…_

A patch of blue caught my eye. Moving closer, I went down on my knees, and leaned over the barbs.

_They build their nests in well-protected foliage, such as cheri and nanab bushes…_

There, underneath the protective layer of thorns, were four sleeping shinx.

_And they will risk everything to protect their kin._

"Oh, I…" _I _was the one that almost stepped on her siblings. _I _was the one stupid enough to provoke that attack. "I'm so sorry. I didn't realise-"

She snapped at me when I reached for her, her ears plastered to her skull. Knowing that there was nothing more I could do, I returned her and Hatter to their pokeballs. Then I rose to my feet, and continued making my way through the underbrush.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Thirty-five minutes later, my Xtransceiver felt like a stone in my pocket.

It buzzed with a new message every five seconds or so, and I counted the vibrations. _Twenty-nine messages; thirty…_

Taking deep breaths, I looked down at the silcoon in my arms. I had caught him earlier, as he had been the first pokemon I had met on a new route. The silvery sheen of his chrysalis signalled that he was close to evolving, but he had barely put up a fight when I threw a pokeball at him.

_Thirty-one; thirty-two. _"They know I'm okay. I'm sure Damion's mom will explain everything." I swallowed. "Right, Mytho?"

The silcoon grunted in response.

Frowning, I lifted my eyes. The city of Jubilife towered in front of us, its many skyscrapers piercing the clouds.

I had only just put my foot down on the pavement when a brown-clad shape knocked into me. Mytho was knocked out of my arms, and my head cracked against the pavement.

Blinking stars from my eyes, I sat up, and opened my mouth to tell the other person to watch where they were going-

When the barrel of a gun was shoved into my face, and the words died in my throat.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

*Edited.

_A/N:_

_Pokemon Obtained In This Chapter:_

_*Winry the shinx. Met on Route 202, lv. 4. Lonely nature, highly curious. Likes spicy food. Ability: Intimidate. Named after a character from _Full Metal Alchemist.

_*Mytho the silcoon. (I caught him as a wurmple in-game, but since he evolved so fast it was hardly worth mentioning.) Met on Route 204, lv. 4. Careful nature, often dozes off. Likes bitter food. Ability: Swarm. Named after a character from _Princess Tutu.

_*Hatter the piplup. Met on Route 201, lv. 5. Relaxed nature, often lost in thought. Likes sour food. Ability: Torrent. Named after a character from _Alice in Wonderland.

_Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want, by The Smiths: About how Odile wants to prove to everyone that she can make it on her own. Although, with her journey off to such an awful start, her self-doubt grows. Further explanation below._

_Good times for a change  
>See, the luck I've had<br>Can make a good man  
>Turn bad<em> *Odile's luck- being forced to challenge the League, getting a gun in the face, etc.- has been pretty shitty.

_So please, please, please_  
><em>Let me, let me, let me<em>  
><em>Let me get what I want<em>  
><em>This time <em>*All she wants is to prove to everyone that she's strong.

_Haven't had a dream in a long time_  
><em>See, the life I've had<em>  
><em>Can make a good man bad<em>

_So for once in my life_  
><em>Let me get what I want<em>  
><em>Lord knows, it would be the first time<em>  
><em>Lord knows, it would be the first time <em>*Self-explanatory


	6. Colour On The Walls

**Disclaimer: **Olih: Thanks for reviewing, and for helping me out with this fic! EpicFailOnline: Thanks for adding this to your favourites; your penname is awesome! Ebaz: Thank you for faving, and thanks for the review! Mmm, foreshadowing… *thunder crackles overhead while I throw my head back in maniacal laughter* Lumpycheez: Thanks for faving this, and be sure to review when you have the time!

_Song for this chapter: 'Colour On The Walls (Don't Stop)' by Foster the People._

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

**Chapter Five: Colour On The Walls**

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

I gasped like a feebas out of water as I stared down the barrel of the gun. My mind was a humming blank, wiped clean by shock.

"Are you an ally of justice?"

My mouth opened, but nothing came out.

"Hm." The gun was lifted away from me, and I found myself able to breathe again. "I see."

Blinking rapidly, I lifted my eyes to meet electric blue ones. The man who they belonged to seemed to be in his early thirties, the beginnings of a beard dotting his pointed chin.

"I am…No. I will tell you only my codename." His brown coat brushed the ground as he loomed over me. "It is Looker. I am a member of the international police."

My eyes were still on the gun. I had never seen one before, aside from the fake ones used in old movies. The self-defence courses at school didn't even _cover _what to do when threatened by a gun, since they were so outdated. They belonged to a time back before cars and weaponry were outlawed, back to a time when the ice caps were in danger of melting.

"Say, have you heard of Charon?" The sound of his voice stopped my mental rambling. He had gone over to where Mytho lay, and prodded him with the toe of a scuffed black boot. "I am looking for both him and-"

Mytho gave a shudder at the touch. The silvery sheen of his skin grew to a glow, and he flashed the white of an exploding star.

Looker threw an up arm to shield his eyes. "Flash grenade?" he shouted.

_No, _I thought._ Evolution._

Bright-patterned wings unfurled from Mytho's new body. Shreds of his old skin clung to the tendril-like tongue typical of beautiflies, and it drifted down like silk as he rose into the air.

Looker lowered his arm. His unfocused, almost friendly demeanor was gone: his brilliant blue eyes were aimed at me, and frown lines cut deeply into his face. "So you are not an ally of justice after all," he said darkly, raising the gun.

Chills ran up and down my arms. Stumbling back a step, I raised both hands. "Please-"

"_You!"_

Both Looker and I stopped in our tracks.

A teenage boy stood in front of us, a violin case in one hand and a suitcase gripped in the other. He was close enough for me to see the Unovian slant of his eyes, and the slight wave in his auburn hair.

"It's you," Looker gasped, wheeling around to point the gun at the boy instead.

Instead of looking alarmed, as a normal person would be, the boy's expression hardened. His eyes slid to me, and then back to Looker. "What do you want from me?" he demanded, taking a few steps to the right.

_Are you stupid? _I wanted to scream at him._ Don't provoke him when he has a gun!_

And that was when I noticed what he was trying to do.

He was moving away, forcing Looker to turn his back to me. He was giving me a way to escape. I couldn't believe it.

"Seriously, to follow me even here… Who are you, anyway?" He kept his eyes on Looker as he spoke. "And what do you want?"

Returning Mytho to his pokeball as quietly as I could, I took a step back, praying that Looker wouldn't notice.

"I am a member of the international police," said Looker, keeping the gun aimed at the boy. "It is my duty to apprehend you."

"Police?" Shock flitted across the boy's face. "You can't be-"

Before he could finish I spun around, breaking into a sprint. I heard Looker shout "Halt!", but didn't glance back. Instead I booked it down the city streets, and prayed that the boy was doing the same.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"For the last time, _yes, _I am positive it was a gun," I gasped into the receiver. "And _yes, _I'm aware of how improbable that is."

"Miss," the dispatcher sighed, "please stay calm and stay on the line."

"Are you even listening to me?" Exiting Jublife City and starting down the grassy road of Route Three, I finally stopped running. Mytho fluttered after me, having popped out without my permission. "A man threatened me with a _gun-"_

"Miss, I will have you know that we don't have time for prank calls." His voice dripped condescension. "If you want to waste time, call someone else."

"No, I swear I'm not- hello?" I stared at the Xtransceiver, and then pressed it back to my ear. "Oh, no way. He did _not _just hang up on me." Resisting the urge to throw my Xtransceiver as far as I could, I shoved it into my pocket instead. "I can't believe this."

Mytho moved to hover in front of my face, his expression completely deadpan.

"_You _saw the gun, didn't you?" He just continued to beat his wings. My voice rose. _"Didn't you?"_

His wings twitched in a shrug.

"I know it was a real gun," I muttered, starting to walk again. Glancing up at Mytho, who was still looking down at me expressionlessly, I sighed and said, "Let's just focus on getting to Oreburgh and pray for no more disasters, okay?"

Famous last words.

No sooner had I finished speaking when I noticed two boys arguing behind a cluster of pecha bushes. They were young- twelve at the most- and looked to have just finished battling each other. The taller of the two was baring his teeth in a victorious sort of smile, and the other was holding a bloodstained pokemon in his arms.

"Look, I can't help that my rattata is in the highest percentage of rattatas-"

"Well, you didn't have to freaking _mutilate _my starly! It's pretty much dead now!"

The starly gave a piteous chirp. Neither of them paid it any mind.

"Whatever," the rattata's trainer scoffed. "I won, so just give me my money."

"No way! We were supposed to just battle for _fun,_ not to the death!"

"Calm down. We can just leave it behind a bush or something and not tell anybody about it. No one has to know."

To me, the whole exchange had felt like watching a movie: something that sounded real, looked real, but couldn't possibly be happening. Something I couldn't interfere with.

His dismissive tone brought me back to reality.

"What are you saying?" I snapped. The two boys turned, noticing me for the first time.

They looked startled at my outburst. "What's your problem?" the rattata's trainer finally said.

"What's my _problem? _You're asking me what my _problem _is?" Anger at Damion for ditching me, at the 911 dispatcher- all of it rose to the surface. I started to yell, more worked up than I had been in a long time. "My _problem _is that you're talking about leaving a living thing to _die_. Pokemon can't be discarded; they aren't inanimate objects. Go heal your pokemon at a center."

At that, the sneers dropped off of their faces. "I can't," the starly's trainer said.

"Why can't you- oh. _Oh._" Realisation washed over me. _"_You aren't legal age." How had I not made the connection before? They obviously weren't old enough to have their licence, or to purchase pokeballs. They had probably stolen from their parents.

The one with the starly had started to sweat. The other looked like he was planning to make a run for it.

"Get your parents to take it to a center, then," I said.

"I can't!" He was growing more and more panicked. "My dad would _kill _me."

My voice rose high enough to break the sound barrier. "Your pokemon is bleeding to death and you're worrying about your- what are you doing?"

The boy had come closer, and started pressing the starly into my arms. Its blood dripped between us, falling onto my shoe. "Take it," he begged. "Just take it to the center or something. You're a trainer. Fix it."

"It's not my problem." Still, I grabbed onto the starly. It lay small and shivering in my arms, its feathers sticking to my palms.

"If you don't take it, then you're just as bad as he is," the rattata's trainer interrupted.

"How about I report you for illegal battling and theft, and see if the cops agree with you?" I fired back.

He struggled for a comeback. Failing, he settled for flipping me the finger, and ran off with his rattata at his heels.

I stared at the kid in front of me, willing him to do the right thing. Instead he turned away, and started off after his friend.

_Bastard. _Another wave of anger swamped me. "Come on, Mytho," I bit out. "Oreburgh is close; we just have to follow this path and take a shortcut through one of the Oreburgh mines."

He simply looked at me, and for a minute I thought that he hadn't understood anything I had just said. But then he turned and, whipping up a Gust attack with his wings, loosed it at the two trainers. The miniature whirlwind sliced through the air, and I saw their retreating figures being lifted off their feet and thrown into the side of a tree.

The flame of my anger fizzled out. Sending a surprised, grateful nod his way, I clutched the starly tighter and forced my aching legs into a run, the brush of his wings against my back letting me know that he was following after me.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

We burst into the Oreburgh pokemon center a little after noon. Out of breath and covered in the starly's blood, I staggered over to a passerby nurse, and thrust the tiny bird pokemon at her. "Help it, _please," _I panted. "It's lost so much blood."

The nurse took it without batting an eyelash, and handed it down to a nearby chansey. "Get that down to the Emergency room," she told it. It dipped its pink head, and disappeared through a set of doors. She turned to me. "What happened?" she demanded, eyeing my blood-soaked shirt and arms.

"I- it's not mine. These other trainers..."

"Alright." She didn't look convinced. "May I have the pokeball, please?"

"What?"

"The pokeball," she repeated. "Of the starly."

"I told you, it's not mine."

"Then let me see your trainer's license."

Still trying to catch my breath, I rummaged through my bag, and pulled out my card. She ignored the bloody fingerprints on it and used the portable machine she held to scan my number. "Alright. Your trainer code is 56730. I'll sent the cost straight to your account as soon as the doctors have finished with your starly."

I felt as if I had been run over by a torterra. _"What?"_

"The cost," she said again. "Of the surgery."

I tried to say something, but nothing came out.

"Would you like a room?" she asked next. "I can book you one."

"I… a room?" I said faintly.

Taking this as a yes, she punched a quick few digits into the machine, read it and then unclipped a key from her belt. "Here," she said. "For room twenty-seven."

"Okay." My fingers wrapped loosely around the key.

The nurse gave me another unimpressed once-over. "We'll contact you when your pokemon is ready to be picked up."

"Okay," I repeated, suddenly too drained to deny ownership of the starly. She walked away, but I found I couldn't move: it felt as if I was swimming in my own head. It was only after being jostled by thirteen other people and almost being knocked to the floor that I stumbled towards the steps, heading towards the rooms.

As soon as I found mine I let myself in, and tossed the keys onto the coffee table. My legs burned with lactic acid, and the heaviness of my bag threatened to break my back in half. Shucking it off, I collapsed onto the floor, my bloodied clothes creating a red ring in the carpet around me.

When I finally did move, it was to get my Xtransceiver. There were twenty voicemails, but I only listened to one.

"_Hey, it's Damion. You're such a slowpoke, you know that? I waited for you at the center, but you didn't show. Well, you know how I hate waiting, so… I challenged the gym. Don't freak out at me, okay? Because I know you are. You're probably listening to this and waving your stubby little arms around and being a complete spaz. But listen. Because of my dad, I managed to book some awesome battle times against Roark, the gym leader in town. Yours is for tomorrow at one. Me? I totally dominated. The prize money was wicked, too; you won't _believe _how much you get paid when you win."_

Taking a deep, shuddering breath, I was just about to press the 'Callback' button when an incoming call came in, and an all too familiar face filled the screen.

"Hello, Odile," said my father evenly.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

*Edited.

_A/N:_

_Unovian- as in, the 'Unovian' tilt to the boy's eyes- is (my version of) the pokemon world's version of Asian._

_Colour On The Walls 'Don't Stop', by Foster The People: So, I was having trouble picking a song for this chapter so I decided on this one. It honestly doesn't have a lot of significance, other than Odile having to run her ass off this chapter. Also, the zany, out-of-the-box beat and lyrics remind me of Looker. No further explanation necessary._

_Walk little walk  
>Small talk big thoughts<br>Gonna tell them all just what I want  
>That street two streets I see you and me<br>Hanging on the empty swings  
>Count high low don't worry my eyes are closed<br>I'm a superman and it's my show  
>One shoe two<br>Gonna kick with my new shoes  
>I'm going to kick until I need new shoes<em>

_Yeah, yeah_

_I said uh-don't stop, don't stop, don't stop_  
><em>Talkin' to me<em>  
><em>Stop, don't stop, don't stop<em>  
><em>Giving me things<em>

_I run they run everybody run run_  
><em>And we're all just having fun<em>  
><em>Sleigh ride boat ride piggy back ride<em>  
><em>I'm going to show them all how I can ride<em>  
><em>One two three close your eyes and count to four<em>  
><em>I'm gonna (I'd like) to hide behind my bedroom door<em>  
><em>Crayons on walls<em>  
><em>I'll color on them all<em>  
><em>I'll draw until I've broken every law<em>

_Yeah, yeah_

_I said uh-don't stop, don't stop, don't stop_  
><em>Talkin' to me<em>  
><em>Stop, don't stop, don't stop<em>  
><em>Giving me things<em>  
><em>Stop, don't stop, don't stop<em>  
><em>Laughin' about it<em>  
><em>Stop, don't stop, don't stop<em>  
><em>Don't stop<em>

_Don't stop, don't stop, don't stop_  
><em>Talkin' to me<em>  
><em>Stop, don't stop, don't stop<em>  
><em>Giving me things<em>  
><em>Stop, don't stop, don't stop<em>  
><em>Laughin' about it<em>  
><em>Stop, don't stop, don't stop<em>

_I said uh- don't stop, don't stop, don't stop_  
><em>With me<em>


	7. Between Two Lungs

**Disclaimer: **Ferah J: Thank you so much for your wonderful review! Olih: I'm so glad that you enjoyed Looker; he's a pleasure to write about. Ivyslade: *Hugs* Hi there! Thanks for the fave and alert. I'm flattered that you like Mytho, and just my story in general! Cherrie: Thanks for adding this to your alerts; be sure to review when you have the time!

Song for this chapter: 'Between Two Lungs', by Florence and the Machine.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

**Chapter Six: Between Two Lungs**

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"Odile," my father said again. His whole complexion was in a blaze. I could see my mom standing behind him, twisting her hands together nervously.

I sat up, feeling the colour drain from my face. "Father-"

"Don't," he said, the force behind that one word making my apology shrivel and die on my tongue.

"I-"

"_No."_ Despite the fact that we were separated by the screen, the shout still made me jump. "Honestly, do you have any idea how _selfish _you're being?"

"I know." It was a parched whisper. "I'm sorry."

He made a disbelieving noise, looking as if he were unsure whether to snort or start yelling. "I don't think you do. Running away in the middle of the night, challenging the League-"

My whole body went cold. "How do you know about that?"

He exhaled shakily through his nose, his neck flushing with the effort to contain his anger. "Damion told his mother about what happened with the professor."

"I don't have a choice. I- I'm in debt." My bottom lip started to quake at the admission. "If you talked with Damion's mom, then you should know _why _I'm taking the League challenge."

"I do." A muscle in his jaw leapt. "Why didn't you ask us for help instead of taking on something like that?"

I fought to keep my voice steady enough to speak. "It was expensive machinery; we don't have the money for that. And besides, I got myself into a bad situation today and have to pay off even more now." Tears began to form; I blinked them away. "Father, I don't understand; I thought you'd be _proud _that I'm challenging the League."

He stared at me hard, his Adam's apple bobbing. Then he did something that stung worse than shouting: he raised both hands in defeat and turned away, looking disgusted. "If that's what you think, then we're more estranged than I originally thought." The defeated way he spoke- as if he was sick of me, and tired of dealing with me- was a slap in the face.

My throat swelled, and began to ache. It hurt to get the words out. "Sorry." It was the only thing I could think of to say.

The screen went dark in reply. It took me a moment to realise he had hung up.

Tears festered, pooling in the space between my lungs and crawling slowly upward, clogging my throat. I could feel my face crumple, and my small sniffs gave way to open-mouthed sobs.

I stopped crying when something bumped against the back of my head. Turning around, I was met with the sight of Mytho fluttering overhead, a tissue box dangling from his long mouth.

"O-oh… thank you." Taking a tissue, I blew my nose, and took another to wipe my eyes. "You know, you're kind for such a grumpy-looking pokemon."

His multifaceted eyes narrowed. Giving a sort of snort, he dropped the tissue box onto me and flew back to his perch on the lampshade.

After tossing the tissues in the nearest garbage can, I looked down at the Xtransceiver in my hand. The screen had resorted back to showing the 'Callback' option, and my fingers hovered over the 'Yes' option uncertainly.

Mytho looked at me, waiting to see what I would do.

Hesitating, I pressed 'No' and dropped it onto the bed. "He's probably busy training, anyway," I said, glancing down at the blood that was drying on my sleeves. "And after I clean myself up, that's what we're going to have to do, too."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

The inside of the Oreburgh mine was damp and dark, illuminated only by a handful of lights. Water dripped from the ceiling, splashing onto my freshly-washed skin as I ducked out of the way of a horde of angry zubats.

"Shit!" I gasped, swatting at them as they swarmed me. "Hatter, I _told _you not to aim at them!"

My piplup chirped an apology, and used his Bubble attack to help fend them off. I continued to flail, while Mytho and Winry looked on in not-quite amusement.

"Thanks for helping with that, you guys," I huffed after they had dispersed, eyeing the two of them sourly. "Really, aren't pokemon supposed to protect their trainers?"

Mytho didn't bother to give me a reaction. Winry merely rested her muzzle on her paws, and flicked her tail at something behind me.

Confused, I turned my head- and screamed when I glimpsed the zubat that was caught in my hair, its wings scraping against my neck. Panicking, I shrilled at Hatter to get it off of me, and in return received a Bubble to the face.

"Attack the _zubat,_" I spluttered, water dripping from my chin, "not _me!"_

Hatter rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, and then toddled over to my bag. Pulling out a pokeball, he pitched it to me using both his flippers. I managed to catch it, and twisted my arm to bonk it against the zubat's nose.

White light consumed the pokemon. Falling to the ground, the capsule shook once, and then stilled.

Sighing in relief, I stooped down to pick up the pokeball. Rolling it between my palms, I eventually said, "I'll name you Cullen. At least you'll be useful for the professor's research." and tossed it onto my bag. Then I bent so that I was eyelevel with Hatter. "Sorry for snapping at you. I just hate zubats, is all."

He cheeped, and lifted a flipper to pat my cheek curiously. "Don't worry about it; I'm fine. It was a good attack, though." I went to kneel in front of Winry and Mytho, with Hatter toddling along behind me. "Now, about the two of you… the gym leader uses Rock types, and even though I probably won't use you, I still think we should train a little." I glanced between them. "So, who wants to go first?"

Mytho gave a grunt that I interpreted as, _Even if I did, I wouldn't exactly be able to tell you, now would I? _He then rolled his eyes at Winry, who responded with a roll of her own. "Look, it's great that the two of you get along, but come on now. I need a volunteer." I stretched a tentative hand out to Winry.

As soon as my fingers neared her, her hackles rose. Her lips peeled back to reveal a row of small, sharp teeth, and electricity crackled along her pelt. Remembering what her pokedex entry had said about a shinx's fur glowing when frightened, I said softly, "Winry, I'm not going to hurt y-"

She scratched me before I could finish, and I jerked away, more out of reflex than pain. It was only when blood began to well up that it began to sting.

Hatter jumped in front of me immediately, gesturing with his stubby flippers as he twittered at her. Winry sat back on her haunches, sparks still dancing across the tips of her fur, and growled.

"H-hey, Hatter, stop. It's okay." I pulled him back before she could electrocute him. "It's just a cut."

He continued to stare at Winry with those globular eyes of his, the expression in them firm. Her lips skinned back in a snarl, and she stood abruptly, stalking over to the opposite side of the cave and sitting herself down.

"It's okay, really," I said in reply to Hatter's concerned expression. "Leave her alone. I won't be using her for the gym battle, anyway." Turning to Mytho, I added, "However, I might be using you. Despite your double weakness to Rock, your attacks might win us the battle." While Mytho appeared not to be listening, Hatter had cocked his head to the side and was regarding me with confusion. "Here, let me explain."

Thinking back to the essays I had written about each of the Sinnoh gym leaders, I started with the basics. "Roark Arkose is the gym leader of Oreburgh, and he specializes in Rock types. He has two different teams, which he switches depending on who he's battling: for beginners like us with three badges or less, he uses an onix, a cranidos, and a geodude; and for intermediate or veteran trainers with four badges or more, he uses a golem, a bastiodon, and a rampardos. Now, almost all Rock types have low Speed and Special Defense, with high Attack and Defense to make up for it." I paused. "Well, onixes are an exception- they have good Speed, but poor Attack stats. To be honest, though, it's his onix that I'm most worried about." The memory of watching Roark battle on television came to me, and I shuddered at how large the onix had looked compared to its trainer. "Most people train for weeks before challenging a gym, but since we don't have that kind of time we're going to have to rely on strategy."

Brushing away the gravel to make a small patch of ground in front of me, I used my nail to start drawing diagrams in the dirt. "Here's what I was thinking: Mytho could start off by using Stun Spore. Once the opponent is paralysed, Hatter, you could switch in and finish off the pokemon with your Water-type attacks." I looked up to find them both watching me. "So, what do you think?"

While Hatter nodded vigorously, Mytho looked thoroughly unimpressed. Winry glared at me from her corner, looking to be put out that she wasn't allowed to battle.

I glanced down at the diagram I had drawn, at the childish stick figures and arrows, and felt a lump form in my throat.

Because if strategy couldn't win us the battle, then nothing could.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

The following morning passed by in a daze, and by the time I reached the waiting room of the gym I was a complete wreck. A slew of worst-case scenarios ran through my head, and I kept having to wipe off my hands on my pant legs to prevent them from getting too sweaty.

_Don't panic, _I chanted, my foot tapping a jittery beat against the floor. _Don't panic, don't panic, don't panic._

In an attempt to distract myself, I picked up the newspaper that was lying on the chair next to mine. '_Hoenn in Financial Crisis', _read the first page. I flipped through the rest of it, glancing briefly at some of the articles: _'Brock Obama Defeats Morty Romney in Presidential Debate.' 'Rocket Industries Fined For the Production of Stat-Raising Drugs.'_ _'The Silph Organization and Devon Corp. Unite.' 'Pokemon-Rights Activists in Unova Protest in Front of White City.'_ Nothing new, really.

"Ms. Rella?" The receptionist beckoned me over to her desk, her crisp white suit at odds with the dusty rock walls. "Your battle will commence shortly. Would you like to come up and pay the entrance fee now?"

I set down the newspaper, and walked over on shaking legs. "Entrance fee?"

"Of course. It's a hundred dollars upfront." Her smile was blinding.

Rummaging through my bag, I grabbed a fistful of bills and put them on the tabletop. "Is that enough?"

She counted them, flicking each one with the tip of her manicured nail. "Hm… you're twenty dollars off."

I peered into my bag, and removed a twenty dollar bill. Out of my life's savings, only forty was left. "Here."

"Thank you." Humming, she gestured to the doors leading to the indoor stadium. "Roark is just finishing up a phone call, but you are welcome to step in."

"T-thank you." My voice cracked, and I took a deep breath before pushing the doors open.

The battlefield stretched out in front of me, bleachers lining each side. Stalagmites erupted from the earthy ground, some of their tips broken off from previous battles, and stalactites hung from the high ceilings. The whole arena looked like the mouth of some monster, gaping wide with rows upon rows of sharp teeth.

Though I stopped at the white line that separated the walkway from the battleground, I could see a young man leaning against one of the stalagmites a few metres away from me._Roark._

"Dad," he sighed, his voice bouncing off the stone walls, "I know what that guy said, but it all seems a little creepy to me. I…" He sighed again, and raked a gloved hand through his hair. "Yeah, you told me, and I still don't like it. There has to be a catch. No, I don't care what Flint said about it; I don't want to be a part of it." He paused. "Okay, I'll think about it. Alright. Goodbye." I saw him flip his phone shut, and he rubbed a hand over his face tiredly.

I was just about to clear my throat when he looked up, and his expression became even more haggard. "Hello there," he called, sliding his phone into his pocket before jogging up to me. "You're my one-o'-clock battle, then?"

"Yes." Up close, his face sent a quick pulse of surprise through me: without the flawless skin and hair that the magazines gave him, he looked shockingly average. He was always made out to be a lean, hard-muscled man in his early twenties, with poreless white skin and curling dark hair. In reality he wore glasses, the eyes behind them a non-descriptive shade of brown, and had a smattering of freckles on his cheeks and above his left brow. His hair wasn't stylishly mussed but instead hung straight, and the hand he held out was connected to a thin, bony arm.

We shook hands, and I was grateful that he wore gloves. At least he couldn't feel how clammy my skin was. "I believe the receptionist said your name is-"

"I go by Odile," I said quickly.

He blinked in surprise, but shrugged it off. "And how many badges do you have, Odile?" The courteous tone to his voice sounded strained, as if it was an effort for him to stay upbeat.

I swallowed. "None."

"Okay. And is this going to be a double battle, or one-on-one?"

"One-on-one," I said. He unclipped three pokeballs from his belt, and then proceeded to wave the referee over.

"She's a rookie," Roark explained when the referee approached. "Give her a run-down, and then start the match."

The ref dipped his head, and turned to me. "Keeping in accord with the League rules, a gym battle will not last more than an hour. It can be either one-on-one or two-on-two; in either situation, you may change pokemon as often as you wish. You'll have only a minute to choose a replacement: having none of your pokemon on the field for more than a minute will result in a penalty. Healing items such as potions or berries are allowed, but the use of stat-raising drugs are illegal and will get you banned. The match will begin as soon as the challenger's pokemon is on the battlefield, and will end as soon as either side's pokemon is dead or unable to battle. Understood?"

"Yes." My heart beat hard against my ribcage.

"Then let's begin. It's-" he glanced down at his poketch "-eleven minutes after one. You have an hour starting now. Challenger, leader, take your positions."

Roark, after giving me a brief, forced smile, turned and walked to the end of the field. I jogged over the opposite end, my legs shaking.

_Don't panic. Don't panic. Don't panic._

His body was half-concealed by the stalagmites, but I was able to see him toss his pokeball high into the air. "Ganister," he called out, and a geodude - marked with craters from previous battles, with bulging muscles made of stone- materialised. It made its way to the center of the field, using its hands to walk.

My lungs squeezed themselves tight, and my sweaty palm slid over the capsules in my bag. Finding the one that I thought was my beautifly's, I gave the pokeball an underhand throw. "Mytho!"

The capsule opened in midair, and the form of one of my pokemon began to take shape.

Except it wasn't Mytho.

It was Winry.

_Panicpanicpanic._

"_Shit." _I was light-headed with horror. _I chose the wrong pokeball. _"Referee, can I re-"

Roark raised his voice, effectively drowning me out. "Ganister, Stealth Rock!"

"Winry, return!" I shouted. Instead of listening, she dodged the white light of the pokeball. She bared her fangs at the other pokemon, tail lashing with the desire to fight.

The geodude's eyes flashed white, and the ground shook underneath us. Six pointed stones were ripped from the battleground using psychic force, and they floated around the outskirts of the field.

I wracked my brain for a command- any command. _She's weak to Rock, and she only has Physical-type attacks…we have to knock out the geodude quickly. _"Winry, try a Charge!"

"Rock Throw," Roark commanded.

His pokemon used one hand to rip out part of one of the stalagmites. The hunk of rock was made of jagged edges, and it looked sharper than broken glass. _"Dodge!" _I screamed, just as the geodude hurled it at her.

She dove out of the way, her claws screeching across the rocky floor. Instead of using Charge, however, she launched herself at the geodude in a Tackle.

"Winry, don't!"

The Rock pokemon caught her in one bulky hand. She snapped at it, her teeth inches away from its face.

"Hold it still, Ganister."

"Listen to me!" My heart felt like it was caving in on itself, squeezing out a disjointed beat of _Don't die, don't die, please don't die. _"Use Charge!"

From where I stood I could see the pokemon's fingers clamp around her neck and torso, squeezing tightly. I released a breath I hadn't realised I'd been holding when I saw the tip of her tail glow in the beginnings of a Charge.

"That's it, Winry! Just hang on!"

"Finish it." Roark's words held no triumph: just a deep, aching tiredness that caused his voice to sag.

"Use Spark!" Panic ripped the words from my throat.

Electricity spread from her tail to the rest of her body, and sparks leapt out from the tips of her fur. Shocked, the geodude dropped her. She landed on her feet, her chest heaving as she fought to regain her breath.

"Mud Sport!" Ganister spat out globs of mud, which splattered onto Winry's coat. She hissed, trying to shake it off of her.

_Crap. _Mud didn't conduct electricity; any Electric-based move she tried to use would be absorbed immediately.

"Ganister, Rock Throw!"

The geodude broke off another stalagmite, and hurled it at Winry. She ducked, and it went soaring past her head, smashing into a stone pillar on the other side of the gym. The impact cracked the stone nearly in two.

An idea clicked in my head.

"Bite, Winry!" She clamped down on the geodude's arm, and Roark shouted for Ganister to shake her off. Ganister reached for her with one rocky hand, making a grab for her tail.

"Spin!" She glanced at me, her eyes wide with disbelief. "_Spin!"_

Planting her feet firmly on the ground, she wrenched her head back, keeping her teeth locked on the geodude's arm. With a grunt of effort she began to turn, her muscles visibly straining under her coat.

"Now let go!"

She did. The momentum of the throw sent the geodude flying into the stalagmite behind them. Winry stumbled, regaining her balance enough to dart away as cracks webbed out across the stone.

Ganister had slumped to the ground, too tired to push itself up. Its eyes rolled up to look at the quivering stalagmite that loomed over it, at the fissures that were spreading across the stone. It didn't move when the top of the stalagmite snapped, and fell with its sharp tip pointing down.

My plan was for the entire stalagmite to crumble, and to bury the geodude under the rock. I only wanted it to get knocked unconscious.

Instead, the broken piece of the stalagmite smashed into the top of Ganister's body, and split the Rock pokemon cleanly in two.

Horror welled up in me. "Oh my Arceus, Roark, I'm so sorry- I didn't mean for that to-"

The referee lifted his flag, and cut me off. "Challenger wins this round. Both sides, call out your next pokemon."

Roark wasted no time in calling out his cranidos. Its helmet-like head gleamed under the lights, the spikes that protruded from it sharp as needles: though short and stout, muscles swelled in its neck and legs, and even its stubby arms were muscular. Its nostrils flared as it surveyed the arena.

"W-Winry, return." She did, too tired to resist. Knowing what sort of strategy I was going to try, I replaced her with the pokemon I had meant to use to begin with.

"It's your turn, Mytho!" My beautifly emerged in a swirl of unfurling, bright-patterned wings. He hovered in the air, his cool blue eyes taking in his surroundings.

"Start off with Scary Face, Skarn," Roark told the cranidos.

"Mytho, Stun Spore!" Mytho beat his wings faster. Golden spores trickled down from them, falling like flakes of snow.

"Dodge." The cranidos darted out of range.

I was having trouble tearing my eyes away from Ganister's broken corpse: even though Roark and his cranidos didn't pay it any attention, it was impossible for me to ignore. "M-Mytho, form a Gust attack!"

He was already two steps ahead of me: stirring up a whirlwind with his wings, he followed it up with another Stun Spore. The spiralling winds accelerated the movement of the spores, but even then the cranidos was fast enough to dodge.

My voice was still rough with desperation. "Absorb!"

Mytho flew nearer, his folded-up tongue unravelling in preparation for the Absorb. Just as he was about to attack, I heard Roark yell, "Headbutt!"

Shocked, I watched as Skarn shut his eyes. He crouched down low, the muscles in his hind legs bunching.

_But Mytho is in the air. Why would Roark…_

Realisation washed over me. "Dodge it, Mytho!"

Kicking off the ground, the cranidos jumped higher than I ever thought possible. Mytho veered sharply, narrowly avoiding having the cranidos's head slam into him.

The cranidos winced when it landed, its knees almost buckling when it touched back down. Bringing both hands up to tangle in my hair, I breathed out sharply, trying to keep the gears in my brain turning.

"Circle the arena, Mytho," I ordered. "Keep moving. Don't stay still long enough for it to attack."

"You have hit the halfway mark of the time limit," the referee interjected. His voice carried over the jagged stones. "Thirty minutes remaining."

_Shit. Shit. Shit. _I needed to clear my head; it was too full of conflicting, unconnected thoughts. _Calm down. Think. The cranidos relies on its legs; we have to make those useless. I don't want to kill it, though. Oh, Arceus, I really don't. _Mytho continued to circle, buying me time. I drew in a deep breath. _Focus. How can we take its legs out in thirty minutes? Switching Hatter in would waste too much time; we have to act now. We-_

A plan unfolded in my mind's eye. Not a very good one, but it was better than nothing.

"Stay still, Mytho, and extend your tongue," I ordered. Shooting me a _You better know what you're doing_ look, he unrolled his curled-up tongue.

"Headbutt again, Skarn," he commanded.

The cranidos closed its eyes once again. Its leg muscles stiffened as it crouched, clearly visible from beneath its thin gray skin.

"Now, Skarn!"

"Catch it!" My beautifly understood immediately: as soon as the cranidos leapt he wrapped his tongue around its leg, and the cranidos hung upside down, suspended in midair.

"Skarn-," Roark began to say, but broke off. The pucker between his brows was clear even from across the battlefield, and I saw his chest lift in a sigh. Settling back, he rubbed a hand across his chin, and said nothing more. When I gave the next command, it was obvious that he had seen it coming.

"Drop it, Mytho."

His tongue retracted. The cranidos gave a brief, choked scream- and then plummeted to the ground below. Its head cracked against the stone.

"Skarn?" Roark called. His voice held only the slightest bit of concern. "Skarn?"

It didn't move, and for a moment I thought that it hadn't survived the fall. Then it stirred, and my shoulders sagged in relief.

"Challenger wins the second round," the referee announced. "You have twenty minutes left. Both sides, call out your final pokemon."

I returned Mytho to his pokeball. Stowing it away, I called out my last pokemon. "Hatter!"

"Go, Gossan!"

The onix materialised slowly, starting out as a small speck of white light. It grew up and outwards, expanding until the top of it scraped the high ceilings: beneath the glow I could see the ruggedness of its shape, like a string of boulders stuck together. Colour flooded into it once it had taken shape, and the onix- as tall as the gym itself, and almost as wide- let out a deafening bellow that was like the sound of continents colliding.

"Keep calm, Hatter." My voice came out sounding winded. I was shaking, my teeth clicking against one another. "Just like we practiced, remember? Just stick to the strategy."

My piplup was shaking, too, but he twisted around to give a nod nonetheless. Turning back to face the onix, I saw him reach up to adjust his tuque, and plant his flippers firmly on the ground.

"Hatter, Bubble!" His small beak opened, and out poured a multitude of bubbles.

"Gossan, Slam!" The rock snake's tail came arcing up and down.

"Move!" I screamed.

Hatter threw himself out of the way. The onix's tail demolished a stalagmite, sending bits of it flying. I let out a small shriek when a fragment grazed the side of my face.

"Headbutt, Gossan," Roark ordered. My heart seized up as the giant pokemon lowered its head, and came barrelling towards Hatter. I saw Hatter freeze, his short legs quivering.

"Jump out of the way, Hatter! Hide behind a stalagmite!" _Do something! Anything!_

He jumped sideways just before the onix's head plowed into the ground at his feet. A plume of dirt rose into the air.

"Bubble!" I shouted.

Hatter twisted in midair, letting loose a volley of Bubbles at the onix. The Rock-type raised its head, and roared when the water hit it.

"Finish this, Gossan." Roark closed his eyes, and rubbed at his forehead. "Use Rock Tomb."

My scream was swallowed up by the sound of the onix slamming its tail into the gym wall. The whole building shuddered, and I stumbled, falling to my knees. Stalactites rained down from the ceiling: some imbedded themselves in the ground like great stone spears, while others crumbled apart at the impact. The huge fragments fell on and around my pokemon, burying him alive.

"Hatter." My throat felt suddenly raw. I pushed myself to my feet. _"Hatter."_

No response.

Uncertainly, the referee raised his flag towards Roark. "The challenger's pokemon is-"

He cut off when light began to shine through the gaps in the stones. The very same light Mytho had given off when he was evolving.

_Oh, thank Arceus._

The sound of rock scraping against rock broke through my daze. A long, gleaming flipper emerged from the tomb of rocks, pushing the boulders away. As I watched, my newly-evolved prinplup pulled himself from the rubble, the white glow slowly fading from his new body.

My heart lifted, and I nearly fell to my knees again from relief. "Keep it up, Hatter! Use Bubble!"

My prinplup opened his beak, but instead of a small number of bubbles a large stream poured out, swift as a coursing river. The onix roared in pain and fury, and was just about to strike back when the referee's voice rang out.

"Stop! Your one hour is up. Challenger loses this round by default." He lifted both his flags. "However, since the challenger has won two rounds out of three, it is the challenger who wins the battle."

All the air emptied from my lungs. "We won?" I repeated, not daring to believe it.

Hatter gave a cheer, and ran to me on his new legs. He was a full head taller than me now, and when he wrapped his flippers around me in a hug he was able to hoist me up into the air.

"We won," I said again. Blinking back a sudden onslaught of tears, I threw my arms around Hatter and pressed my cheek against his. "Oh, Arceus. Oh, thank you."

"Odile." Roark waited until Hatter set me down, and then stretched his hand out. The gym badge sat in his palm. "Good match. Congratulations on your win."

"Thank you." I accepted the badge, and swallowed down the tightness in my throat. "I am so sorry about your pokemon."

He shrugged. "It's fine. It's part of a gym leader's job to not get attached to our parties." He offered me a brittle smile. "Besides, the remains of the Rock pokemon are used to make up the arena."

Tears pushed at my eyes, threatening to spill over.

"Go talk to the woman at the front desk. She'll give you your prize money." He stepped back, and gave a nod. "It's been nice meeting you, Odile."

I nodded back and turned, not bothering to return Hatter to his capsule. He waddled after me as I walked out of the gym and into the lobby.

I flashed the receptionist the badge. She clapped her hands and beamed, yammering on about how impressive it was that I beat Roark. She handed me one thousand dollars in reward money, but I couldn't even find it in myself to be excited or relieved. I simply put it in my bag, muttered some sort of thanks, and went out the front doors.

A cold blast of air hit my face when I stepped outside. Tipping my head back, I finally allowed myself to calm down, and relived the battle: relived the anxiety, the stress, the blood.

_One gym battle down._

_Six to go._

It was then that I doubled over, and vomited onto the pavement.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

*Edited.

_A/N:_

_Thank GOD this is done. Twenty-three pages of pure frustration. TWENTY-THREE. Ugh._

_A few things:_

_-Heaps of gratitude to Champion Jack, who was kind enough to take the time out of his day to write the outline for my gym battle. Thank you SO much, Jack; I honestly could not have done it without you._

_-I wonder if anyone caught that Mulan reference I threw in there._

_-I totally picture Roark to look like Reid Spencer from 'Criminal Minds'._

_-Me and battle scenes are never getting back together. Like, ever._

_-That newspaper and Roark's phone call = Oooh, foreshadowing~_

_-I really hope that I expressed how knowledgeable Odile is about pokemon and such in this chapter without making her Sue-ish. I tried to show it before in 'Let Me Get What I Want', but I'm not sure how well I did._

_ALSO. Okay, this is a theme that'll run through the entire fic: Gym leader names and their pokemons' nicknames. I'll explain Roark's below:_

_'Arkose'= A sedimentary rock similar to sandstone._

_'Ganister'= The Cornish word for a paleosol formed on sandstone._

_'Skarn'= A type of metosomatic rock._

_'Gossan'=The product of the weathering of ore or sulfide rock._

_Pokemon Obtained In This Chapter:_

_*Cullen the zubat. Met in the Oreburgh Gate, lv. 5. Modest nature, a little quick tempered. Likes dry food. Ability: Inner Focus. Named after the sparkly vampires in an infamous book series that I'm not going to bother to name, just for the lulz._

_Between Two Lungs, by Florence and the Machine: To be honest, the song isn't really relevant to the chapter. I did make it relevant, however, by adding in the line '_Tears festered, pooling in the space between my lungs and crawling slowly upward, clogging up my throat._' No further explanation necessary._

_Between two lungs it was released  
>The breath that carried me<br>The sigh that blew me forward_

_'Cause it was trapped_  
><em>Trapped between two lungs<em>  
><em>It was trapped between two lungs<em>  
><em>It was trapped between two lungs<em>

_And my running feet could fly_  
><em>Each breath screaming<em>  
><em>We are all too young to die<em>

_Between two lungs it was released_  
><em>The breath that passed from you to me<em>  
><em>That flew between us as we slept<em>  
><em>That slipped from your mouth into mine it crept<em>

_Between two lungs it was released_  
><em>The breath that passed from you to me<em>  
><em>That flew between us as we slept<em>  
><em>That slipped from your mouth into mine it crept<em>

_'Cause it was trapped_  
><em>Trapped between two lungs<em>  
><em>It was trapped between two lungs<em>

_Gone are all the days of begging_  
><em>The days of theft<em>  
><em>No more gasping for a breath<em>  
><em>The air filled me head to toe<em>  
><em>And I can see the ground far below<em>  
><em>I have this breathe and I hold it tight<em>  
><em>And I keep it in my chest with all my might<em>  
><em>I pray to god this breath will last<em>  
><em>As it pushes past my lips as I...<em>  
><em>Gasp<em>


	8. Imagine

**Disclaimer: **Champion Jack: Yes, Twilight reference~ I couldn't resist poking a little fun at it. Also, that boy comes back, don't worry. And Looker… you have no idea how fun it is to write for him. Olihmajor: Thank you! WhiteRose: Thank you so much for reviewing! Romantic-Flights: Thanks for the alert; please do review when you have the time! Mangaanimefan4eva: Thanks for the favourite; please do review when you have the time! Lumpy: Thanks for reviewing!

Song for this chapter: 'Imagine' by John Lennon.

**Important Notice: I've decided that if I get a hundred reviews before my team reaches Canalave City I'll do a fun Qs and As session. So be awesome and tell me what you like, dislike, and what I could improve upon in your reviews!**

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

**Chapter Seven: Imagine**

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

The morning air smelt of incoming snow, and I could feel it slowly turning my nose red. My shoes clacked against the pavement as I walked down one of Jubilife's busy side streets, narrowly avoiding the people that swarmed around me. The city seemed unusually busy today, and as the people passed I caught the words _Cyrus _and _Devon._

_Must be some sort of concert or something going on, _I thought, reaching up to give Mytho a pat from where he sat on my head. The starly from before was cradled in my arms, dozing. I glanced down at her, remembering earlier today.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"_That's still not enough?" I stared at the nurse pleadingly, willing her to say that she had made a mistake and miscounted._

"_You still owe two thousand and fifty dollars for the surgery," she answered. She glanced over my shoulder and at the line of people that stood after me, and gave an irritated sigh. "Now if there's not anything else-"_

_My jaw went slack in horror. "But the starly's not even mine-"_

"_In the eyes of the law it is," she interrupted impatiently. "You have given us your contact information, and the pokemon has been registered to your trainer card as a legal catch. Since we have your trainer card and private information, you will be allowed to leave here; however, your debt will need to be paid by the New Year. Understood?"_

"_Y-yes." _Two thousand and fifty… that means that I'll have to win two more gym battles, maybe even three, _I thought. _I really can't back out of the League challenge._ "I do."_

"_If you do, then goodbye. You're holding up my line."_

_I turned, only to complete the rotation and face her again. "One last thing. Can you tell me what gender the- my- starly is?"_

"_The surgeon mentioned that it's female." She gave me a stiff bow of farewell, and added by necessity, "Thank you for visiting the Pokecenter. We hope to see you again."_

_Clomping through the horde of bustling trainers and out the door, I heaved a sigh, and looked down at the starly in my arms. She was swaddled in blankets and bandages, and had been washed clean of any blood. When she caught me looking, she smiled with her eyes._

"_You're with me now, so I guess I should give you a name." Balancing her in one arm, I ran a hand down her head. "How about…Odette?"_

_She cooed softly._

"_Odette it is, then."_

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

The sound of Odette chirping brought me back to reality. Blinking, I looked down to see her moist brown eyes crinkled in a smile. Her gentle gaze was focused on Mytho. She clicked her beak at him, her head tilted in curiosity.

"That's Mytho," I said, adjusting my grip on her. "Once we reach Floaroma Town you can meet the other members of the team, too."

She cheeped. Regarding Mytho with an almost hopeful light in her eyes, she shifted in my arms and then gingerly lifted her wings. It took me a minute to realize what she wanted.

"You… want a hug?" Something clicked in my head. "Oh, I get it. You want Mytho to hug you." I chuckled. "Well, come on, My. Be nice."

He slapped my ear with his long tongue, which I took as both a _No _and a _Don't call me that ever again._

I was still smiling when I bumped into someone. Papers went flying, settling at our feet like snow.

"I'm so sorry-," I began, only to stop when I realized who it was. _"Lucas?"_

"Odile," he said unhappily. There were dark rings under his eyes, and his face was paler than I remembered. Only the two splotches of pink on his cheekbones gave him any colour. "S-s-sorry. I'm in a r-rush, and didn't watch where I was g-g-going."

"That's okay. It's my fault, too. Here, let me get your papers." I bent down to retrieve them.

"_No!" _The force of the word made me jump. Odette cowered against my chest, equally as startled as I was.

Red flooded Lucas's face. Hurriedly, he crouched to scoop them up, clutching them to the front of his shirt as he rose. "S-sorry," he said again, looking ashamed. Little beads of sweat lined his brow. "I'm really sorry. They're just really important f-files, is all."

"Don't worry about it." Awkwardness fell like a shadow over the both of us. "So, why are you in such a rush?"

"I'm g-going to attend a s-speech." He shifted his weight, and explained, "The professor is attending to p-personal matters, so I have to go in his s-s-stead. It's being put on by r-representatives of Devon Corp. and the S-Silph Organization."

The headline I read yesterday came to mind: _'The Silph Organization and Devon Corp. Unite.' _"Oh, I've heard about that. Is that what all the excitement's about?"

"Y-yeah."

Mytho huffed impatiently into my hair, so I decided that it was time to go. "Well, good luck with it. Sorry if I made you late."

"I-I'm already late, so it's f-fine." I made to walk away, but he seized my wrist. "Odile?"

I jerked at how his clammy fingers pressed into the skin above my pulse. "Yes?"

"It's o-open to everyone." He fumbled the words, tripping over them in places. "Y-you should c-c-come."

My smile turned apologetic. "Thanks for the offer, but I really want to get to Floaroma before night-"

"P-please!" His eyes were huge in his white, pinched face. He ducked his head at my bewildered expression. "It's just that I hate going out in public alone, a-and I'm already late, and I really don't want to w-w-walk in there alone. It would just be really nice if I had s-someone to come with me."

I bit the inside of my cheek. "It's not that I don't want to go, but it'll take me the whole day to walk to Floaroma. I don't want to travel at night longer than I have to, so…"

My insides twisted in guilt at his crestfallen expression. He looked panicked enough to cry. "It'll be _r-really_ interesting. T-they'll be talking about upcoming projects of theirs, a-and Old World vs. N-new World, and-"

My eyes went wide. "Really? They'll be discussing the Old World?"

The tension drained from his face and shoulders instantly. He let go of me to tuck the papers under his arm, and wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. "Y-yeah, they will."

"Well… I won't be able to stay for the entire time, but I'll definitely go with you." My polite smile dissolved into a more genuine one. "Thanks for inviting me."

Mytho groaned a complaint. I could practically _feel _him rolling his eyes at me.

"G-great. Let's go, then." He began to jog towards the building, glancing over his shoulder to make sure I was following. Returning Odette to the pokeball I had assigned her, I reached up to recall Mytho as well, and caught a glimpse of the angry expression in his multifaceted blue eyes.

"Oh, hush," I murmured, touching the capsule to his head. The red light enveloped him immediately. "It won't take long at all."

But as I went to catch up to Lucas, I began to wonder if that was what Mytho was irked about after all.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

The room we entered was arranged in circular rows of chairs, which were already filled. In the center was a small stage, flanked by two large screens to allow the audience members to see the speaker- an immaculately-dressed businessman, whose silver hair was tinted green by the spotlights- more clearly. By his side was a young woman with red hair cropped short, who was holding a ponyta by the reins. She glanced at me and Lucas when we quietly slipped in.

"…Dinosaurs evolved into animals, and animals evolved into pokemon," the man was saying. "Natural selection has been shaping the world around us since the dawn of time, so it is only to be expected that it would shape our way of life as well. Take this specimen, for example." He gestured with an aristocratic hand towards the ponyta. The screens switched to focus on it instead, and I gasped: its neck was marred with what looked like lashes from a whip, and its nostrils were flaring in alarm. "Just as Electric pokemon are used as generators, Fire pokemon are also used as a source of energy. However, because of this, our economy has sunk: we are now relying too heavily on pokemon, as well as technology. Many are unemployed. Balance in the government is tipping as well: the opinions of gym leaders are now more influential than those of our presidents." The crowd was getting riled up now, their faces livid with agreement, but the speaker remained impassive. He didn't even blink as cameras began to flash. "The essence of war has been changed: nuclear bombs have been replaced with Dragon-type pokemon, and soldiers have been replaced with Fighting-types. Our flags' designs have been altered to match our new way of living. Everything has changed, and yet we are changing for the worst."

People were shouting their agreement, pumping their fists in the air. I shrank back against the wall, feeling as scared as the ponyta looked.

"Because we are human, we are by nature incomplete, and this incompleteness is what is propelling us to pave this path to destruction." The speaker's voice was swelling now, filling the room with its volume and authority. "Because despite how we have changed, we are still fighting against one another for the same petty elements: oil, land, gems, money. We are still discriminating against one another. The government is still steeped in corruption. As a race we have sunk low, and we will only continue to sink lower." His assistant took this moment to bow out, taking the ponyta and surrendering the entire stage to him. His face filled the screens, completely expressionless despite the passion that laced his words; the stillness of it made a lump of apprehension settle in my stomach. "That is why I, Cyrus Stone, founder of the Devon Corporation, have come to promise all the citizens of the New World change for the _better. _My colleague, Dr. Silph, and I have decided to conjoin our companies into one grand company: Galactic Industries." Banners unfurled from above, sporting golden _G_s as symbols. "No longer will you have to imagine a better future, because that better future will soon be a better _today._"

"Wait," I murmured to Lucas. "I thought I read that Dr. Silph went missing."

"Shush," he whispered back, waving me down. "I'm trying to l-listen."

"…Remember," said Cyrus. I snapped back to attention, having already missed part of his sentence. "Conversion such as this has been happening since the start of time. The supercontinent of Pangaea split apart to form the Old World, and the Old World reformed to create the New World. Change is constant. Change is quintessential. And change is what I, Cyrus Stone, the founder of Galactic Industries, have spoken to you about today. Thank you and goodbye." The spotlights went out, and darkness claimed him immediately. The audience erupted in wild applause.

Despite the excitement that charged the room, I had a sick feeling in my stomach. While the part about the Old World had been fascinating, the entire speech left me feeling ill at ease. "Lucas," I said, raising my voice to be heard above the noise. "Thanks for inviting me here, but I have to get to Floaroma."

He stopped clapping, and spun around to face me. "B-but I heard that Mr. Stone is doing a s-signing out back." He reached out to take my wrist, like he had outside, but I put both arms behind my back and took a step away. "W-wouldn't it be cool? He _is _f-famous, after all."

"I'm really sorry, but I have to go." I shot him an apologetic smile. "Bye, Lucas."

I heard him say my name, but I pushed my way through the throng of people, intent on getting out. The air in the room was stifling; it was a relief when I reached one of the side doors. I flung it open and stumbled into the narrow alleyway, finally able to breathe.

I was still trying to rid myself of my unease when I heard a faint whimpering. Surprised, I shook myself and followed the source of the sound, craning my neck to peer around the dumpster.

Dark, nervous eyes- eyes that I had seen only moments before- peered back up at me.

Pity squeezed the air from my lungs. Approaching the ponyta carefully, I stretched my hand out, taking care not to startle it. It eyed my fingers distrustfully.

_Why would the assistant just leave it out here? _I wondered. The bad feeling I had had before rose up again. _That doesn't make any sense._

The ponyta's shaking calmed down a little, and it nosed at my fingertips. Moving my hand to gently stroke the long-healed lashes on its neck, I used my free hand to pull out my pokedex.

"_Ponyta: The Fire Horse Pokemon. Its hind legs, which have hooves harder than diamond, kick back at any presence it senses behind it. Gender: female."_

"They obviously aren't taking good care of you if they're not feeding you properly, and if they leave you out here by yourself," I said in an undertone, taking note of the skinniness of her frame. She whimpered when my fingers grazed a particularly deep wound, and I winced. _What if Galactic Industries just borrowed her from its original owner? I can't just let them send her back… Just look at these marks. _

Hastily sliding off the reins, I glanced around to make sure that the assistant hadn't returned yet, and withdrew a pokeball from my bag. "If you want to come with me, you can," I said, holding it out. "I promise not to hurt you."

Whinnying quietly, the ponyta stared at me for a moment longer, her near-black eyes glossy in the morning light. Then she bent her head, and bumped the capsule with her nose.

My shoulders slumped with relief as the light enveloped her, but the wrenching sense of wrongness remained. "Alright then," I said, stowing her pokeball away. "Let's get on to Floaroma."

_Because I don't like any of this, and the farther I get away from this 'Galactic Industries' the better._

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

By the time I reached Floaroma, the sun had set. The quaint cottages that littered the small town were bathed in twilight, as was the pokecenter. Beyond the familiar red-roofed building I could see a bridge leading to Route Five, along with the giant fans of a wind turbine turning at rapid speeds.

I sighed, and made for the center. Mytho had let himself out of his pokeball once again and he was sniffing the air, which was heavy with the scent of wildflowers. Posters advertising live music in the Floaroma meadow had been slapped onto every shop window.

_Hopefully this pokecenter doesn't charge as much as the one in Oreburgh did, _I thought as I stepped through the front doors. The foyer was relatively empty, and the nurse glanced up with a smile when I approached.

"Good evening, and welcome to the pokecenter. How may I help you?"

I sagged against the counter. "A room for one, please."

"Certainly." She told me the amount, and I handed over a small wad of bills. Stowing away the money, she handed over my room key." "As you may have noticed, there is a small performance going on in Floaroma meadow, which is just behind the center. A few travelling musicians are performing, and there is a buffet as well. If you would like to eat dinner there, the cost would be included in the room fee; simply show them your key." She eyed my tired posture, and gave me a small smile. "If you feel up to it, I'm sure it would help you relax."

The maternal way she spoke sent an unexpected pang running through me. All of a sudden, I found myself missing my mom. "Thanks," I said, offering a weary smile in return. "I'll do that."

Turning around, I pocketed the key and headed back outside. Small pinpricks of pain crept up my feet with every step, and it was only now that I noticed the hunger cramps that were squeezing my stomach. It would be a relief to sit down and eat something.

When I finally reached the meadow, the melancholy strains of a New World guitar greeted me. The area itself was a perfect semi-circle, fenced in by a row of nanab trees. A makeshift stage sat in the middle. Most of the tables were empty, and the buffet didn't have much of a line. I sank into a chair left of the stage, took off my bag and tossed it onto the table.

Mytho let out a small grunt, and fluttered over to sit on the table. The patterns on his wings flashed in the dying light. "My feet are killing me," I groaned, stretching. "And after Floaroma, all the towns and cities will be even more spread out, which means that I'll have to do even more walking."

He rolled his eyes, which I took as, _Well, bitching about it won't solve anything__._

Resting my head on the table, I shut my eyes, in no mood for his attitude. _I'm starving, but I really don't want to get up again. _I chewed on my bottom lip, deep in thought. _Maybe I should have just gone to my room in the center. I think I'll sleep late tomorrow, and maybe I'll take the day off to try and contact Damion or my mom… or Livia. What I wouldn't give to talk to Livia right now. Or maybe I should use the day to train. Considering that there's a gym in Eterna, which will be my next stop, I should really get Winry to trust me; maybe if I do some one-on-one training she'll open up, since she seems to enjoy battling. Then again, the leader of Eterna is a Grass-type specialist, so the ponyta that joined me earlier would be the better choice. She looked as if she had been abused, though- I know that ponyta are used for farm work, but being whipped? I thought that had been banned- and I don't want to push her. Her and Odette just seem so fragile, and if either of them died…_

"Oh, that reminds me." I sat up in my seat, and rummaged through my bag for my pokeballs. "I promised Odette that I'd introduce her to the others. Everyone, come on out."

Hatter was the first to materialise: he shifted his weight awkwardly, apparently still unaccustomed to his newly-evolved body. The ponyta followed shortly after, her knees knocking together as she warily surveyed her surroundings. Odette took shape on the table beside Mytho, chirping happily when she laid eyes on him. Winry came into existence last, eyeing me with dislike.

"Odette," I said, gently moving her onto my lap. She cooed forlornly at being separated from Mytho. "This is Winry-," The shinx flicked her ears in acknowledgment "-Hatter-," My prinplup glanced up from examining his new flippers, clicked his beak in a friendly manner "-and…" My eyes fell onto the ponyta, and I paused. "Come to think of it, I haven't named you yet, have I? Hm… Sayaka, maybe? No. Kirigiri? That doesn't fit well, either." Being careful not to startle her, I leaned over to pat her snout. "How about… Nanami?"

The ponyta leaned into my hand, which I took as agreement. "Nanami, then. It suits you." She flinched when someone walked by, so I returned her to her pokeball in the hopes of easing her anxiety. Dropping her capsule back into my bag, I turned to the rest of my team. "Now, how are all of you?"

Winry scoffed, and meowed something that made Mytho make a dry chuckling noise. Odette's eyes warmed at the sound. Shuffling closer to him, she lifted up her wings, once again asking him for a hug. Mytho rejected her.

Before I could scold him, Winry jumped up onto the table, tail swishing. Her amber eyes were bright with amusement, and she swatted at Mytho with her forepaw. He flicked his wings at her, annoyed; she craned her neck to nip at him in reply. Odette was watching the two with wide eyes, but when Winry meowed she made a coo that sounded oddly like a laugh.

Suddenly, something caught my eye. "Oh! Winry," I exclaimed. She stiffened, too surprised to jerk away as I touched my fingertips to her fur. Her pelt was dusted with a silver glow; the same glow that Mytho had had when he was a silcoon. "You must be close to evolving."

The amusement drained from her eyes. Baring her teeth at me, she jumped off the table. She slunk under it, the tip of her tail peeking out from under the linen.

I opened my mouth to coax her out, but thought better of it. Instead, I settled back in the chair, and decided to rest my eyes.

From the stage, I heard the guitarist mutter a thanks into the microphone. There was scattered applause. The clomping of footsteps signaled a different musician stepping up onto the stage, and the mike whined while it was being adjusted. "Hello," said the newcomer at length. The pitch of his voice was familiar, and very pleasant. "I'll be performing an original piece tonight, which I hope you'll all enjoy."

Almost immediately, the sound of a violin filled the air. The notes ran up and down the scale in song, the crests in the music sweet and uncomplicated. With a small jolt I realized that what he was playing was an Old World violin.

Belatedly, I realized _why _his voice had sounded familiar.

My eyes flew open. Shock chased the heaviness from my body, and I bolted upright in my seat, staring at the boy that had taken the stage. The very same boy that had saved me from Looker; the one had risked his life for mine, for a complete stranger's.

From this close, I could see that he was around my age. The cast of his features was sullenly handsome in the dusk, and his coppery hair fell past his ears in half-waves. His instrument was propped up against his shoulder, light spilling across its polished surface as he sawed the bow back and forth along the strings.

_I'm glad that he managed to get away from that Looker person. _The thought was rife with relief. _Still… how'd he get away? The man had a gun…and Looker recognized him, too. They must know each other._

Sensing my curiosity peak, Mytho inched nearer to me. Irritably, he tapped my room key with his wing. _Let's just go back to the center, _I translated.

My eyes flicked back up to the stage. The boy was slowly lowering the violin from his shoulder, the last notes of his song lingering in the air. People were clapping, and he was bowing low, taking his violin and bow in hand before exiting the stage.

"It'll only take a moment." The words popped out of my mouth without my permission. "I promise. I just need to talk with him."

Mytho rolled his eyes so dramatically that I thought they'd get lodged in the back of his skull. He grumbled as I got to my feet; I recalled Odette and Winry, and thanked Hatter when he grabbed my messenger bag for me. The two of them followed after me when I jogged towards the boy, who had his back to me and was busy stowing away his instrument. Millions of questions crowded my tongue- _Who is Looker? Do you know why he was after me? How do you know him? How'd you escape?- _but they all seemed to crash into each other when I opened my mouth to speak. Swallowing against a sudden bout of nervousness, I tentatively reached out to touch his shoulder, hoping to get his attention.

His reaction startled me. Jerking away from under my fingertips, he spun around, violin case in hand. Fear flitted across his face, quickly masked.

"I- I'm sorry." I retracted my hand. "I didn't mean to surprise you."

He peered at me, his lowered lashes casting shadows across his face. Though recognition sparked in his pale gray eyes, he still didn't lose his guarded expression. "You're that girl from Jubilife," he said.

"Y-yes." Mentally, I cursed myself for stammering. "I'm Odile."

He tilted his head. A lock of hair fell across his forehead, the fading light turning it flame-coloured. "Odd name."

I blinked. Behind me, I heard Mytho let out an indignant huff. "It's a nickname."

It was his turn to blink. "Alright."

Silence stretched out between us.

"...Isn't this the part where you're supposed to introduce yourself?" I asked eventually.

"Sorry," he said, unrepentant. "I've been told that I lack social skills. Now, if you'll excuse me." He brushed past me, his violin case swinging from one hand and a suitcase from the other.

I could feel embarrassment buzzing through me, dusting my cheeks with red. "Hey, wait," I called, running after him. Hatter and Mytho struggled to keep up. "That wasn't what I wanted to talk to you about."

"What did you want to talk about, then?" His tone wasn't friendly, but it wasn't unfriendly, either.

"I just… wanted to thank you." At his surprised look, I added, "For rescuing me from Looker, I mean. You saved my life."

"Oh." He broke eye contact. "Why was he after you?"

"I was hoping you'd know." By this point our steps had synchronized, my short legs working double time to match the strides of his long ones. I kept pace with him when he rounded the pokecenter, moving in the direction of Route Five. "He seemed to recognize you."

The expression on his thin face was watchful. "So I noticed."

"So why was he after you?" A light sensation on the top of my head told me that Mytho had landed there. "How'd you get away?"

"I ran." The answer was clipped. "I was just lucky that he didn't pull the trigger."

I peered up at him. Though he wasn't as tall as Damion, he was close. "Is there a reason you keep dodging my questions?"

"Several dozen, actually," he said, unsmiling. "I just don't need to explain them to you."

We reached the bridge. It lacked railings, and the faded wooden panels creaked underneath our weight. The slow-moving river below caught and held the twilit sky, reflecting it back like a mirror. "Fair enough," I replied, agitation beginning to lace my voice. "I'm very grateful to you for saving me, and I'm sorry for being so nosy about all this, but I just want to understand why Looker acted the way he did. If you know anything that-"

He stopped so abruptly that I nearly crashed into him. Rounding on me, he put his luggage down, and placed his hands on my shoulders. "Look, Odile." My name sounded strange in his mouth: not unpleasant, but just so different from the way Damion or Livia said it. His fingers pressed into my shoulder blades, and he shook me slightly. "I can't help you. I-"

"Asher Oshiro!" The voice was familiar, jubilant, and came from directly behind me. "I found you."

At the moment the boy's- Asher's- lips parted, I felt my own jaw drop in horror. His gentle grip on my shoulders went slack, and I whirled around.

Looker stood at the end of the bridge, regarding us with his electric blue eyes. His figure was a ghostly smudge reflected in the water below him, a blotch of wavering brown.

_Where did he come from? _The thought was accompanied by a ripple of shock.

"I remember you," he said, his gaze falling on me. "You attacked me." His tone was pleasant, as if recalling a fond memory that we both shared.

Still smiling, he leveled the gun at me, his finger poised over the trigger.

It was then that I felt arms go around me, and the water struck my face with a cold, hard slap.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

*Edited.

_A/N:_

_This definitely isn't my best chapter, but it is a necessary one. Also, concerning the whole Tesserae thing: it's supposed to be strange. How'd she end up in the alleyway? Why would the assistant leave her out there? Why was she even on the stage in the first place? It doesn't make a lot of sense now, I'm sure, but I promise it will later._

_Also, thanks to Ebaz for giving me ideas on how to kick-start the conversation between Asher and Odile!_

_Pokemon Obtained In This Chapter:_

_*Nanami the ponyta. Met on Route 207, lv. 5. Rash nature, quick to flee. Likes dry food. Ability: Flash Fire. Named after a character from _Super Dangan Ronpa 2.

_Imagine, by John Lennon: A song that fits Galactic Industries' (read: Team Galactic's) ideal. No further explanation necessary._

_Imagine there's no heaven_

_It's easy if you try  
>No hell below us<br>Above us only sky  
>Imagine all the people<br>Living for today..._

_Imagine there's no countries_  
><em>It isn't hard to do<em>  
><em>Nothing to kill or die for<em>  
><em>And no religion too<em>  
><em>Imagine all the people<em>  
><em>Living life in peace...<em>

_You may say I'm a dreamer_  
><em>But I'm not the only one<em>  
><em>I hope someday you'll join us<em>  
><em>And the world will be as one<em>

_Imagine no possessions_  
><em>I wonder if you can<em>  
><em>No need for greed or hunger<em>  
><em>A brotherhood of man<em>  
><em>Imagine all the people<em>  
><em>Sharing all the world...<em>

_You may say I'm a dreamer_  
><em>But I'm not the only one<em>  
><em>I hope someday you'll join us<em>  
><em>And the world will live as one<em>


	9. Feel Good Inc

**Disclaimer: **Olih: Again, thanks for such a helpful, in-depth review! Crown of Gold: Thank you for the favourite and alert; do review when you have the time! Pokegirl: Thanks : ) Mystery Reviewer: Thanks! Fdgerj: Haha, I'm hurrying! ArchXDeath: *Grins back* 'Nerdpalm' is being added to my list of favourite words as I type this out. Ebaz: Thanks so much for reviewing! Oh my, I should've known you would've fangirled over Asher *facepalm* Romantic: That was one of the best reviews I've ever received. You were honest and wonderfully descriptive, and I am really, truly touched right now. I'm sorry that I can't express that properly. That was incredible feedback; thank you so much! Champion Jack: I feel that my portrayal of Looker needed a gun. Thanks for speaking your mind!

Song for this chapter: 'Feel Good Inc.' by Gorillaz.

**Important Notice: I've decided that if I get a hundred reviews before my team reaches Canalave City I'll do a fun Qs and As session. So be awesome and tell me what you like, dislike, and what I could improve upon in your reviews!**

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

**Chapter Eight: Feel Good Inc. **

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Clawing my way up to the surface of the river, I swallowed a welcome lungful of air. Hair was plastered to my face, and I had to push it back in order to see. The frigidness of the water left me disorientated, and it took me too long to realize that Asher had made us both fall off the bridge, out of harm's way.

"Asher?" His name came out of my mouth in a croak. A second later he bobbed up to the surface, coughing water from his mouth.

Dread twisted my insides when I realized that my pokemon were still on the bridge. "Hatter, return yourself to your pokeball!" My prinplup shook his head in refusal. Mytho fluttered at his shoulder, his long tongue curled in preparation for an attack. _"Return!" _

Light shot out from my bag, which was still slung across his shoulder. The light wrapped around him, forcing him to dematerialize despite his protests. He was dragged into his pokeball, and my bag fell with a _thwump _onto the bridge.

"Mytho, do the same," I shouted. "Return!"

My beautifly dodged the red light. Glaring, he whipped up a Whirlwind with his wings, and loosed it at Looker.

The force of it made Looker lose his balance, and he stumbled back a few steps. As I watched, his cheerful expression dissolved, leaving an eerie blankness in its wake. His eyes sparked with fury. "It is a felony to assault a member of the International Police," he snarled. Striding towards Mytho, he lifted the gun, and brought it down hard against one of my pokemon's wings.

Horrified, I watched as the force of the blow ripped Mytho's wing clean in two. He gasped, trying desperately to keep himself airborne, but it was no use: faltering, his wings gave out, and he plummeted towards the water.

Sloshing through the river, I caught him just in time. He blinked weakly up at me, shivering in my arms. Blood spilled out from the torn veins in his wing, staining the fabric of my coat. His eyes were glazed over in shock and pain.

"Return." The light enveloped him, drawing him into the depths of my messenger bag and into his pokeball.

Looker turned to look down at me, the middle of the bridge groaning under his weight. "I am still searching for Charon," he said. His voice was back to being neutral, the anger washed clean from his face. "I have heard reports that he is located here. You have seen him, have you not?"

"You- you just- you _bastard, _how the _hell _could you do that to Mytho?" Grief overrode my sense of self-preservation.

"That is unfortunate," he sighed, as if carrying on a completely different conversation. "It is unfortunate that you refuse to assist me, and continue to assist the enemy instead."

Pebbles rolled out from under my feet when I tried to back up. Wheezing out a curse, I lost my footing, and sank to my knees. The water lapped at my bottom lip.

"Obstruction is a criminal offense," he said. His finger twitched over the trigger.

The split second before he lifted the gun, a heavy weight struck my back, and I tumbled under the surface. Arms wound around my waist, dragging me under the bridge.

When I finally managed to get my head above water, I gasped for air, blinking droplets from my eyes. Light slanted through the cracks in the paneling, intermingling with the shadows.

"W-"

A hand clapped over my mouth. "Stay quiet," Asher whispered, his lips brushing my ear. His arm was still around my waist, and I felt it stiffen when the footsteps of Looker creaked above us.

"Justice will always prevail. Justice will always prevail. Looker, member of the International Police, will always p-p-p-p-" He broke off, and veered into a different sentence. "The duty of the International Police is one of solidarity, and the path I walk is one I must walk alone: through times of strife and war I will soldier on…"

"What we need is a distraction," Asher breathed. Ideas flooded through me, but fear kept cutting them off before they could fully form.

"…The two of you are under arrest for kidnapping, obstruction, and the use of weaponry," Looker was saying. A light bulb went off in my brain.

"I have an idea," I whispered. "It's not a good one, but…"

Asher turned me around so that we were face-to-face. His autumn-fire hair was stuck to his face, the strands dripping water down his cheekbones. "Just tell me what I need to do."

I swallowed. "One of us has to go distract him. We have to get him into the water."

"Why?" he asked, the word barely audible.

My heart was hammering against my ribcage, threatening to break free. "While one of us distracts him, the other can get onto the bridge and push him off. Then, while he's disoriented, one of us can pull the other up, and we can run to Floaroma."

He eyed me critically. "That's insane."

"I know that." I fought to keep my voice low. "But do you have a better one?"

His teeth were gritted. "If you could use one of your pokemon to attack him-"

"No. I won't let him hurt another member of my team. Besides, Mytho's attack did next to nothing." I frowned. "If you have a stronger pokemon you think would be more effective-"

"I don't." He looked away, and I thought I saw him flinch. "Have one that would be more effective, I mean."

"Then either think of another plan, or use mine. There's a psychopath above us with a _gun; _we don't have time to be arguing like this!"

He shut his eyes briefly. "Fine. I'll be the distraction; you climb up." Turning, he waded through the water, his movements calm. The fading sunlight set his hair ablaze as he tipped his chin up to glare at Looker. "What are you rambling about?" he demanded. I started paddling through the water, keeping as quiet as I could. "I've never kidnapped anyone."

"Lies." Looker's voice dropped back down to that throaty growl. "You have taken Charon hostage."

Planting my feet on the rocky bottom of the river, I lifted my arms, and kicked off. My fingers just barely reached the edge of the bridge, and I clamped my hands down on it, kicking my feet to propel me upwards. My waterlogged clothes were deadweight, and my muscles screamed in protest as I managed to get one elbow up.

"You're wrong!" Asher raised his voice, as if trying to drown out the noise I was making. Panting, I tried to haul myself up onto the bridge, and cursed myself for not working out more in my Physical Education classes. "I've never heard of this 'Charon' person."

I hoisted the rest of my body up onto the bridge. Standing, I saw that Looker had his back to me: he was trembling wildly, the gun shaking in his hand. His words came out in disjointed bursts. "Lies. Lies. Lies. You are not an ally of justice, I know that to be true; but perhaps it is your accomplice that has taken Charon hostage. Yes, _she _is the one that has taken Charon. She has taken him. She has. My sources have informed me. But _you… _Asher Oshiro, _you_ have done despicable things. There is a bounty on your head. Yes, someone is after you for your crimes. That someone has hired me; he…"

_Don't be scared. You don't have time to be scared. Just do it. _Taking a deep breath, I broke into a run, the panels shuddering under my weight. Looker jerked at the noise, swinging around to face me, but it was too late: I was already shoving him backwards, his skin unnaturally cold beneath my fingertips. Knocked off balance, he toppled off the bridge, and landed in the water with a splash. I heard him gasp, and his body convulsed in what looked to be a seizure.

Dropping to my knees, I leaned over the edge, and reached down. "Here," I called to Asher. "Hurry!"

Asher's hand clasped mine, and I pulled with all my strength. Miraculously, I managed to haul him up. We both fell onto our backs, chests heaving.

The suddenness of it all left my head spinning. Now that the adrenaline was leaving my body, I became aware of just how heavy my wet clothes were, and that I had scraped my knees on the river's floor. My pants had been ripped at the knees, and blood oozed out, darkening the blue of the fabric to black.

"Get up. We can't stay here." Before I could even catch my breath, I was being helped to my feet. Asher's fingers were slick against mine; water had soaked through his shirt, making it cling to his slim frame like a second skin. Wetness clumped his eyelashes together into sharp points, shading the gray of his eyes.

"R-right," I said, teeth chattering. Stooping down, I picked up my bag, clutching at it with fingers numb from the cold. "Are you hurt?"

He blinked, bewilderment flitting across his face. "No. Are you?"

"No, but Mytho is." Anguish twisted like a knife in my chest. "I have to get him to the center."

"It wouldn't be safe to head back to Floaroma," he pointed out, remarkably calm despite the situation. "That will be the first place Looker will check for us."

"I know, but Mytho needs medical attention." My eyes filled with sudden hot tears.

He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Look, the Valley Windworks is close by; there's a chance they'll have medical supplies." When I sniffled, I saw him grit his teeth. "Don't- don't cry," he snapped, turning away. "Just… don't."

Letting go of my arm, he made his way across the bridge. Strangely enough, he didn't pick up his violin case as he went. "You don't have to help me," I said, wiping at my eyes. "This is the second time you've saved my life; I already owe you."

"Forget it." He quickened his pace. "No one owes me anything."

We rounded a clump of wepear trees, and the Valley Windworks came into view. The wind turbine loomed above us, its giant fans turning at rapid speeds. A small lab was connected to it, the sunlight refracting off its all-glass exterior.

Pushing past Asher, I hammered my fist against the enormous glass doors. "Open up," I yelled. "I need _help!_ Open _up!"_

"I'll go see if there's a back entrance," Asher supplied. He rounded the corner of the building, disappearing from sight.

"Is anyone there?" I shouted. Tears leaked into my voice when I thought of Mytho, of the pain that had been so clear on his face, and I banged both my hands against the door with renewed desperation. "My pokemon needs medical care! _Ple-_"

The doors swung outward, and I had to leap backwards to avoid being hit.

"What do you think you're doing?" A girl that looked to be no older than me stepped out. She was clad in a lab coat, the brown of her skin indicating that she was Hoenn-born. Her hair- a bloody, unnatural shade of red- was cropped short to accentuate her sharp-boned face, and a golden _G _was emblazoned over her heart.

"You're with Galactic Industries," I said stupidly, too surprised to filter my thoughts. "You were at that conference. You were handling Nanam- I mean, the ponyta."

Her eyes, which were magnified by the glasses she wore, flared with recognition. "Oh, it's you."

"Me?" I repeated, bewildered. "How do you know me?"

Before I could react, her hand flashed out, and she caught me by the throat. Her painted nails dug into my neck, breaking skin, and I gasped, my arms reaching up to try and pry her fingers from my neck. She tightened her grip in response, cutting off my air supply.

It was all too much, too fast. The girl was glaring at me, her blue eyes fierce with resolve, and she was locking her other hand around my neck and squeezing. I lashed out with my leg, but although I hit her in the kneecap it wasn't enough to make her let go. I tried to grab for the pokeballs in my bag, but my movements were uncontrolled with panic.

"A…" I couldn't get the name out from around my constricted windpipe. "Ash…A…"

"Sorry about this," the girl said. The pressure increased, and black spots popped before my eyes. "You aren't even a threat, but the boss can't take any chances. No hard feelings."

"_Asher," _I managed choked out.

Suddenly, I could breathe again. The fingers that were crushing my airway released me, and I lifted my hands to my throat. They came away red.

The girl was staring at me as if she had seen a ghost. "What did you just say?"

"Asher!" It came out as a raw cry.

The colour dropped from her face. She staggered backwards, and I was taken aback by how small she suddenly looked: the lab coat she wore was two sizes too big for her, and without the determination twisting her features she looked incredibly vulnerable. She made to press the 'Close' button for the door, but when she caught sight of Asher running towards us she seemed to decide it wasn't worth it and bolted, vanishing into the depths of the lab.

"What happened?" Asher's gaze went to my neck immediately. "Why are you bleeding?"

"I was strangled." I coughed. My voice was hoarse, and it hurt to swallow.

His eyes went wide. "By _who?_"

"A researcher. I think she was part of Galactic Industries." At his confused look, I shook my head. "Look, there's no time. Mytho still needs medical attention."

"I know." He rubbed at his forehead. "We could try Floaroma, if you're willing to risk it. We'd have to cross back over the bridge to do that, though, which would obviously be dangerous." Frown lines cut deeply into his face, and he glanced at me distrustfully. "And you said that you were strangled? Just what did you do to make so many people want you dead?"

"Look, I don't know why either of them attacked me." My head was swimming, and it was a struggle to keep calm. "And besides, the researcher knew _you,_ too. She ran when I called your name."

His slender brows furrowed. "She must have been intimidated by the thought of fighting more than one person. Unless-"

The shrill blaring of an alarm drowned him out. Lights flashed red, and I cried out when the doors swung shut, forcing Asher and I into the Windworks. The heavy glass of the doors slammed against my back, and I was knocked to the floor, my head cracking against the marble.

I could hear the alarm still screaming, but it hard to hear above the ringing in my ears. The marble was frigid against my still-wet forehead, but when I tried to move pain shot through my skull, strong enough to make me nauseous. My breaths sounded reedy even to me, and each intake caused the ache in my throat to intensify. The shallow gashes on my knees stung.

My head was almost too heavy to lift, and it took several blinks to make the room stop spinning. The foyer was a whirlwind of activity: men and women ran this way and that, carrying items and stacks of paper in their arms. There were shouts of _"Abort; we have to get Dr. Silph out of here!" _and _"Where has commandant Mars gone?" _and _"Gather all the research you can!" _Climbing to my feet, I somehow made it over to where Asher was trying to pry the doors open. I watched as he backed up a step, and kicked at the glass in an attempt to break it. It didn't work.

"We have to get out of here," he said, barely audible over the clamor. His neck was flushed, the muscle in his jaw stretched taut as he turned to face me. "All this noise is bound to alert L-"

As if on cue, there was the shattering of glass. My stomach dropped when Looker climbed, dripping wet, in through the gaping hole. The broken glass cut at his arms and face, but he didn't seem to notice.

"Shit," Asher and I said in unison.

"Freeze," shouted Looker, brandishing his gun. A few people saw him and raised their hands, but for the most part he remained unnoticed amongst the chaos. "I am Looker of the International Police!"

"There has to be another way out." I tugged on Asher's arm. "If we hurry-"

"Get them," someone cried. Glancing back, I saw a man pointing at us, his Galactic Industries uniform a blinding shade of white. "It's Oshiro and that girl!"

Alerted by the man's cry, Looker spun around. His eyes landed on us.

Panic skidded down my spine. Casting a wild, desperate glance around the foyer, my eyes zeroed in on an escape route. "Hallway to the left," I gasped, and this time it was Asher who grabbed my arm, hauling me behind him as a group of the Galactic lackeys began to give chase. Looker broke into a run, following behind them.

Our footfalls rebounded off the walls, our labored breaths echoing down the corridors. The hallway was dark, lit only by the spinning red lights of the alarms, so I could only get brief glimpses of my surroundings: spreadsheets nailed to the walls, filled with sketches of what looked to be crimson chains, or DNA strands; maps of our region with giant _X_s slashed across certain areas; drawings of orbs.

I was so distracted by the strangeness of it all that I didn't notice the grunt until he was ripping my arm from Asher's grasp.

"Got you," he breathed, his breath hot on my neck, and I reacted instinctively: jerking my leg back, I hit him in the crotch, and he released me instantly. Throwing all my weight backwards, I threw him off-balance, and watched as he tripped over his own feet. His head smacked loudly against the wall, and he slumped to the floor, clearly dazed.

Asher slowed to a stop. "Damn it," I heard him say. "They caught up. I guess I have no choice." Stepping in front of me, he cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, _"Li!"_

The response was instantaneous: a white, horned pokemon rounded the corner, its hooves clacking against the floor.

_It's an absol, _I realized, remembering our lessons on native Hoenn pokemon. Its muscles rippled underneath its smooth coat, and it turned its head to look at Asher, its red eyes bright with intelligence.

"Block them," Asher commanded, and Li immediately swiveled to face the Galactic flunkies. One of them moved towards the pokeball hanging from their belt, but it leapt at him, knocking him to the floor. The other Galactic members staggered back, fear and uncertainty scrawled across their faces.

"Should I send out one of mine to help him?" My words were breathy with panic.

"There's no time- Looker's gaining on us. Besides, Li can handle herself."

Following his lead, I sprinted down the corridor, my sodden shoes screeching against the floor every time I turned a corner. Above the alarms and pounding of my heart, I could hear Looker shouting. I twisted around in time to see him maneuver past Li, and charge towards us.

Nearly choking on my ter**r**or, I spotted a door labeled _Emergency Exit, _and made a beeline for it. Shoving it open, we raced up the stairs it led to. When we reached the top, I expected to be relieved: I expected another floor of hallways, and another exit leading down and out of this place.

Horror washed through me instead.

We were on the roof. The enormous fans of the wind turbine turned round and round, slicing the air. The roof itself was flat, and completely barren.

I ran to the edge, looking for a ladder or fire escape. No such luck. "There's no way down. We have to go back-"

"No. Looker saw us." He raked his hands through his hair. "Do you have a Flying-type pokemon that could lower us to the ground?"

"She's not strong enough." I glanced down again. The ground looked impossibly far away. "Could we jump?"

"We'd risk breaking our legs."

My intestines felt as if they had twisted themselves into knots. "Damn it," I muttered, pressing the heels of my hands to my eyes. "I don't know what to do. This is all my fault, I'm so sorry…"

"There's no time for that." He sounded as drained as I felt. "What's important now is keeping our heads. If we do that, there's a chance we'll make it out of this."

I let my hands fall. Staring into his face, which was all planes and angles and expressions that I didn't understand, a different face surfaced in my mind's eye: a trusted face, with ochre eyes and a mop of curling blond hair.

Damion. Damion would never forgive me if I died. Neither would my mother, or Liv.

And then there would be Mytho, who had gotten himself hurt trying to protect me. It would be for nothing if I died now.

_You're right, _I opened my mouth to say, but the sound of the door flying open cut me off. Looker stepped out, blue eyes blazing, coat still dripping water. There was a tear in his sleeve, which revealed two long, bloodless scratch marks on his arm—caused by Li, probably.

"Where have you taken Charon?" His voice was incredibly haggard. My legs jerked with the desire to run, but there was nowhere _to _run: Looker was blocking the one and only doorway.

Scenarios darted through my brain at lightning speed. _What if I ripped the gun from his hand? No, I wouldn't be fast enough. We could jump, but he might shoot us in the back, and even if we did make it we probably wouldn't have the strength to run. Could I send Winry out? That's probably the best option, considering Hatter and Nanami wouldn't be fast enough. I'd call out Mytho, but…_

He lifted the gun. It shook in his hand, as if he was unable to hold it steady. "As a member of the International Police, it is my duty to disarm you," he said. The words were nearly lost in the whirring of the fans; air from the turbine blew back his hair.

_Air… That's it! That's what I can do! _Inspiration welled up inside me.

Unclasping Mytho's pokeball, I put it to my lips, knowing he could hear me. "I know you're hurt, but I need you. Please."

"Stow away your weapon," Looker shouted, but it was too late; I had already released Mytho. My beautifly struggled to keep himself in the air, but his multifaceted eyes were ablaze with determination.

"Mytho!" I cried as Looker cocked the gun. "Whirlwind!"

What happened next played out almost in slow motion.

Mytho pulled back his wings before snapping them forward again, hurling a Whirlwind at Looker. The sheer force of it swept Looker off his feet, and flung him against the fans of the turbine: he let out a strangled scream before plummeting out of sight. I heard the heavy _thud _that signaled his body hitting the ground.

But not before Mytho's wings tore.

Each flap of his wings ripped his already injured wings further, and by the time the Whirlwind was completed they were in tatters. Blood fell from them like tears, and he plummeted, no longer strong enough to keep himself midair.

Time restored itself to its normal pace. I stood staring at the place where Mytho had fallen, half-expecting him to fly back up into view give me one of his usual scowls.

He didn't.

"_Mytho." _Whirling around, I wrenched the door open, and practically threw myself down the stairs. The hallways were completely empty when I ran through them, and if there were still a few Galactic grunts, I didn't notice: I was staggering, slipping, faltering as I climbed out from the window Looker had broken through. _"Mytho!"_

He lay in the long, overgrown grass, the remnants of his wings twitching. I dropped to the ground next to him. He opened his eyes to look at me. His eyes were a duller shade of blue than normal, but the rest of him was red: red that pooled on and around him, that stained my hands and knees. There was so much red for such a small pokemon.

My entire body felt as if it were sagging; tears spilled down my face, and I found that I couldn't look directly at him. "I-I have bandages," I choked out. I fumbled with my bag, my fingers leaving smears of crimson on the gray as I retrieved my first aid kit. "I have bandages. I can fix you. I'll fix you." With shaking hands I laid the first strip of cotton on him: it was soaked through immediately, and made useless. "Mytho, please, I will _fix you."_

Reaching up with one segment of his shredded wing, he touched my cheek. For once, he wasn't glaring: his eyes held their usual cynicism, but there was trace of understanding, as well. It was a gaze without regret, without blame.

"I'm so sorry." Gathering his bloodied, broken figure in my arms, I pressed him to my chest, and squeezed my eyes shut. "This is my fault. I'm so sorry, Mytho; I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry." Beginning to cry in earnest, I rocked him gently, his blood dripping past my arms in rivulets.

_My father was right. Oh Arceus, he was right. I'm sorry, I'm such a failure; I'm your trainer and I failed you, Mytho you shouldn't be the one dying…_

One by one my pokemon released themselves from their capsules, and formed a circle around me. Hatter had his tuque in his flippers, with Odette perched on his shoulder; Winry was lashing her tail in frustration, kneading the ground with eyes bright with pain; and Nanami stood apart from the others, looking hopelessly afraid.

We watched as Mytho's abdomen inflated one last time, and then went still. His wing fell from my cheek, and landed heavily beside him.

I had to sit there for a very long time before I was able to even think about moving again.

Rising with Mytho still in my arms, I stared out across the river, where the sunset was reflected back at the sky. Staggering over on unsteady legs, I went down the riverbank, wading in until the water lapped at my stomach. I minimized Mytho's pokeball with trembling fingers.

Placing Mytho in the water, I placed the capsule on his chest and crossed his small arms over top of it, since he was my angel and it was fitting that he should have wings.

Then I let him go. The current swept him downstream, and to a place where I couldn't follow.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

I walked to the Pokecenter in a daze. Leaving my pokemon for the nurse to heal, I climbed the stairs to my room, my shoes leaving bloodied footprints on the off-white carpet.

Going to the washroom, I stripped down, putting my clothes- stiff with water and drying blood- in a pile on the floor. I stepped into the shower, rinsing Mytho's blood from my body until it circled the drain and was gone.

Wrapping myself in a towel, I sagged against the one-person bed, and took out my Xtransceiver. Dialing the number, I swallowed hard, pressing the communicator to my ear with both hands.

"Hello?" He answered on the first thing, his voice as warm and upbeat as ever.

I squeezed my eyes shut even tighter, my face crumpling as the tears started up again. I wanted to tell him everything- about Mytho and Looker and my parents and Asher and everything else- but the words just wouldn't come. I was dying to ask him to travel with me, to not leave me alone anymore, to help me with this, but instead I just cried harder.

"Hello?" he repeated. "Odile? This is you, right? What's up?"

Crawling onto the bed, I curled in on myself, and buried my face into the pillow so he wouldn't hear me sobbing.

"Odile? Hey, what's wrong?" he asked when a hiccup escaped my mouth. The words were brimming with confusion. "Did you lose a battle or something? It's okay, Odile."

"No, it's not." I cried harder than I ever had before, the tears streaking hotly down my face. "It's not, Damion."

And I ended the call.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

*Edited

_R.I.P Mytho: lv. 4-15._

_You were the first to go, but, sadly, not the last._

_Feel Good Inc., by Gorillaz: I chose this song because of how it talks (briefly) of windmills, and how the laughter in it reminds me very strongly of how I imagine Looker's laughter to sound like._

_Hahahahahahahahaha,__  
><em>_Feel good,__  
><em>_Feel good,__  
><em>_Feel good,__  
><em>_Feel good,__  
><em>_Feel good,__  
><em>_Feel good,__  
><em>_Feel good,__  
><em>_Feel good,__  
><em>_Feel good..._

_City's breaking down on a camel's back.__  
><em>_They just have to go 'cause they don't know whack__  
><em>_So all you fill the streets it's appealing to see__  
><em>_You won't get out the county, 'cause you're bad and free__  
><em>_You've got a new horizon it's ephemeral style.__  
><em>_A melancholy town where we never smile.__  
><em>_And all I wanna hear is the message beep.__  
><em>_My dreams, they've got to kiss, because I don't get sleep, no_

_Windmill, windmill for the land.__  
><em>_Turn forever hand in hand__  
><em>_Take it all in on your stride__  
><em>_It is stinking, falling down__  
><em>_Love forever love is free__  
><em>_Let's turn forever you and me__  
><em>_Windmill, windmill for the land__  
><em>_Is everybody in?_

_Laughing gas these hazmats, fast cats,__  
><em>_Lining them up like ass cracks,__  
><em>_Ladies, homes at the track__  
><em>_It's my chocolate attack.__  
><em>_Shit, I'm stepping in the heart of this here__  
><em>_Care bear bumping in the heart of this here__  
><em>_Watch me as I gravitate__  
><em>_Hahahahahahaa._

_Yo, we gonna go ghost town,__  
><em>_This motown, with yo sound__  
><em>_You're in the place__  
><em>_You gonna bite the dust__  
><em>_Can't fight with us__  
><em>_With yo sound, you kill the INC.__  
><em>_So don't stop, get it, get it__  
><em>_Until you're cheddar header.__  
><em>_Yo, watch the way I navigate__  
><em>_Hahahahahhaa_

_Feel good, ahhhhahahahah__  
><em>_Feel good, ahhhhahahahah__  
><em>_Feel good, ahhhhahahahah__  
><em>_Feel good, ahhhhahahahah_

_Windmill, windmill for the land.__  
><em>_Turn forever hand in hand__  
><em>_Take it all in on your stride__  
><em>_It is sticking, falling down__  
><em>_Love forever love is free__  
><em>_Let's turn forever you and me__  
><em>_Windmill, windmill for the land__  
><em>_Is everybody in?_

_Don't stop, get it, get it__  
><em>_We are your captains in it__  
><em>_Steady, watch me navigate,__  
><em>_Ahahahahahhaa._

_Don't stop, get it, get it__  
><em>_We are your captains in it_

_Steady, watch me navigate__  
><em>_Ahahahahahhaa._

_Feel good, AHHHHahahahaha__  
><em>_Feel good,__  
><em>_Feel good, AHHHHahahahaha__  
><em>_Feel good...__  
><em>_Hahahahahahahahaha…_


	10. Fix You

**Disclaimer: **Chasing Midnight: Thanks for the alert! Crimson: Thank you for the favourite! Ebaz: Thanks so much! And that's not a stupid question at all: I do play along with my story, but further ahead so that I can plan things. Olih: As usual, your feedback is irreplaceable. IamRAWRkaythanks: I'd say I'm sorry that I nearly made you cry, but I'm not, since that means I succeeded in what I was trying to do. *hands you tissues* Champion Jack: There's tragedy in this, yes, but not as much as you may thank. I try to spread it evenly so that it doesn't become overwhelming.

Song for this chapter: 'Fix You', by Coldplay.

**Important Notice: I've decided that if I get a hundred reviews before my team reaches Canalave City I'll do a fun Qs and As session. So be awesome and tell me what you like, dislike, and what I could improve upon in your reviews!**

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

**Bonus: Fix You**

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

_**Tears stream down your face;**_

_**I promise you that I will learn from my mistakes.**_

_**Tears stream down your face,**_

_**And I…**_

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"Mytho," Odile whispers.

My body is screaming in pain, and sunlight sears my eyes when I force them open._ (Because I have to have them open: I won't blink, can't blink, because behind my eyelids there's nothing but darkness and Arceus knows that's all I'll be seeing soon.)_ My wings feel sticky, and when I turn my head I see that it's because they're covered in blood.

"I-I have bandages." She's tearing through her knapsack. Tears are rolling off her chin, and they drip onto my skin like rain. _(Rain. Will I miss rain? I think I will. I think I'll miss everything.) _ "I have bandages. I can fix you. I'll fix you."

I want to tell her to shut up, that she's wasting her efforts. She would probably understand me, too- she's become annoyingly good at translating what I try to get across- but it feels like I'm choking. There's something in my lungs that I can't get out no matter how hard I cough.

_(I can't tell if it's blood or panic. Both are making it hard to breathe.)_

"Mytho, please, I will _fix _you," she says, but we both know it's a lie. She tries to wrap my wing in gauze, but there's just too much blood.

_(I'm trying not to focus on it- to gather my thoughts, to go out as peacefully as I can- but it's so damn hard. Memories are popping like bubbles before my eyes: memories of waterlogged leaves and ash being blown in from the mines, of starting out with five siblings and ending up with none; of meeting the human kid and hating her, hating all of them, until I woke up one day and realized that I didn't hate them at all.) _

With the last of my strength, I touch my wing to her cheek. It's melodramatic, but it's the only way I can say thanks.

_(Thanks for giving me a family, thanks for putting up with me even though I'm a pain in the ass. Thanks for everything.) _

More tears drip onto my face, and I'm grateful for them- they hide they ones I'm shedding. "I'm so sorry," she chokes out, pressing me against her heart so hard that I feel my bones crunch.

_("Oh, knock it off," I want to say, but when I open my mouth all I can do is gag.)_

Sobbing, she rocks me back and forth, back and forth. The motion brings on the first wave of drowsiness.

_(If I believed that death is just like sleeping, then this would be a hell of a lot easier to deal with. But I don't. I try to convince myself, but you can't trick yourself. Death isn't sleeping, and death isn't falling slowly into darkness: death is awareness. Death is a racing heart and shredded wings, not-quite-regrets swirling through your brain and desperate thoughts leaping over each other. Death is like a cloud abruptly coming to block the moon; death is the flicking off of a light switch. Death is…)_

The sky is suddenly a lot closer now. Odile's arms around me feel incredibly far away.

_(Death is when you're blinking, until you realize you no longer have eyes.) _

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

…_**Will try**_

_**To fix you.**_

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

*Edited.

_A/N:_

_As you can see, this is a bonus chapter from Mytho's point of view. I'll be doing a chapter like this for every team member that falls._

_Fix You, by Coldplay: I think that this song perfectly describes how Odile feels about Mytho's death. No further explanation necessary._

_When you try your best, but you don't succeed__  
><em>_When you get what you want, but not what you need__  
><em>_When you feel so tired, but you can't sleep__  
><em>_Stuck in reverse__  
><em>

_And the tears come streaming down your face__  
><em>_When you lose something you can't replace__  
><em>_When you love someone, but it goes to waste__  
><em>_Could it be worse?_

_Lights will guide you home__  
><em>_And ignite your bones__  
><em>_And I will try to fix you_

_And high up above or down below__  
><em>_When you're too in love to let it go__  
><em>_But if you never try you'll never know__  
><em>_Just what you're worth_

_Lights will guide you home__  
><em>_And ignite your bones__  
><em>_And I will try to fix you_

_Tears stream down on your face__  
><em>_When you lose something you cannot replace__  
><em>_Tears stream down on your face__  
><em>_And I..._

_Tears stream down on your face__  
><em>_I promise you that I will learn from mistakes.__  
><em>_Tears stream down on your face__  
><em>_And I..._

_Lights will guide you home__  
><em>_And ignite your bones__  
><em>_And I will try to fix you_


	11. Confessions in the Moonlight

**Disclaimer: **Olih: I've run out of ways to say thank you, ORZ. Still, thank you from the bottom of my heart! Romantic: I'm so glad I managed to pull a few heartstrings! Rawr: Thank you! And yes, Mytho, my poor baby ; m ; Whiterose: *Gives you a tissue* Arther: Hahaha, that's such a great idea! I totally should have had Odile call him 'Mythy' at least once. Jack: Go for it! They're so fun to write! Midori and Owen: Thanks for adding me to your favourites!

Song for this chapter: 'Confessions in the Moonlight', by Joe Hisaishi.

**Important Notice: I've decided that if I get a hundred reviews before my team reaches Canalave City I'll do a fun Qs and As session. So be awesome and tell me what you like, dislike, and what I could improve upon in your reviews!**

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

**Chapter Nine: Confessions in the Moonlight**

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

My attempts at sleep were riddled with thoughts, with pain and memories and tears that soaked the pillow through. I tried to block them out, but no matter which way I turned they were there, accusatory and undeniable.

…"_She nearly failed the battling simulations at school."…_

…"_Useless!"…_

…"_I shouldn't be nicknaming you. It's better not to get attached."…_

…"_Honestly, do you know how selfish you're being?"…_

…"_You know, you're kind for such a grumpy-looking pokemon."…_

… "_Really, aren't pokemon supposed to protect their trainers?"…_

A choked sob escaped. My eyes felt swollen and everything hurt: my knees, my neck, my head, my heart.

"I was wrong," I whispered. "Pokemon aren't supposed to protect their trainers; trainers are supposed to protect their pokemon. It's their responsibility." The darkness caught and held my words. "I'm sorry that I wasn't responsible, Mytho."

_Sorry._ The word left a vile taste in my mouth. _Sorry _was what you said when you stepped on someone's toe. _Sorry _was what you said when you bumped into a stranger on the street. So what was I supposed to say when I had my pokemon's death on my hands?

I yanked the covers over my eyes, praying that sleep would come, but it never did. In the end I got up and picked my clothes up off the carpet, taking them to the sink to try and scrub the bloodstains away.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

By the time morning came, clouds had rolled in. The light that filtered in through the lobby's window was gray. I shivered a little, the cold air stinging the skin that the rips in my pants left bare. My eyes and head ached from fatigue; on top of that, my throat felt more bruised than ever, and my scraped knees were painful to touch.

Stifling a yawn, I stepped through the Pokecenter's front entrance- and turned my head to see Asher Oshiro walking out from the other set of doors.

He looked exhausted. Bruises had blossomed along his jawline, and shadows were etched under the curve of his eyes. His hair stuck out in tufts, as if he had slept poorly. He had a rumpled map in one hand, and his suitcase in the other; his absol trotted behind him, the handle of his violin case clenched between her teeth.

A slow flush of guilt swept through my body, coloring my cheeks red with shame. _Those bruises, that miserable look on his face- it's all because of me. Even Li's injured. If he didn't already hate me before, he certainly does now. _The thought brought tears to my already prickling eyes.

Murmuring something to Li, Asher turned his head—and locked eyes with me. I could tell that it was an accident immediately: his eyes widened in surprise, and whatever he was saying to Li trailed off.

I swallowed hard. _He'll just be annoyed if I try to apologize. The best thing I can do is just leave him alone, _I told myself. Shouldering my messenger bag, I averted my eyes, and started off down the path leading out of Floaroma.

There was a sigh from behind me, followed by the crunching of leaves that signaled Asher walking behind me. There was only one trail connected to Route Five, and awkwardness slid up my spine when I realized that we would be travelling the same way. Another wave of grief swamped me: if Mytho were here, he'd help ease my insecurity, and probably give my ear a slap for being so meek. The space on my shoulder where he used to sit was painful in its emptiness, and a lump rose in my throat as I crossed the bridge that was still specked with his blood.

Trying to distract myself, I reached into my bag, searching for my Xtransceiver. My next stop was Eterna City, but I needed to pass through Eterna Forest to get there. My teachers had mentioned its labyrinthine layout, so using the map feature on my Xtransceiver would probably help. The last thing I wanted was to have to spend the night in the woods.

My fingers finally bumped against my Xtransceiver, and I pulled it out. Moving over to the side of the path, I leaned against the nearest tree, using the shade it provided to better see the screen. I powered it on, and messages flooded the screen.

_O? _

_I'm in Eterna. R u heading there? We can meet up_

_Hey, why'd u hang up?_

_Would u answer already_

_If u don't answer I swear to Arceus I'll call Livia_

_K I called Liv and she's freaking out. Don't be mad u brought it onto yourself_

_ODILE_

_Dammit Odile_

I was just about to type out a reply when the screen went blank. Surprised, I tried rebooting it, only to remember that I hadn't charged it last night. It must've run out of power.

_Damn, I won't be able to use the map, then, _I realized. Dropping it back into my bag, I rifled through my belongings, hoping to come across a spare map of some sort. No luck. All I could find were my extra pokeballs and a container of crackers that I had packed before leaving.

Groaning, I leaned my head back against the trunk of tree. _What do I do now, then? I guess I have no choice except to go in blindly…_

A growling sound caught my attention. I glanced over to see Asher kneeling on the ground, his suitcase open in front of him. He was frowning down at the contents, the map still clenched in one hand.

The growling started up again, and it took me a moment to realize that it was coming from Li's stomach. Letting out a small, almost apologetic noise, she butted her head gently against his arm. "Sorry," I thought I heard him say. He rested his free hand on her horn. "We'll head back to town so I can buy more food for you."

The uncharacteristic softness in his voice made me bite down on my lip. Dipping my hand into my bag once more, I pulled out the container.

_Should I? Well, it's worth a try, I suppose. _

Steeling myself, I walked back down the path, fingers twiddling nervously with the lid of the container. I stopped a few steps shy of Asher, gnawing on the inside of my cheek.

Tipping his chin up, he met my eyes, his expression more curious than cold.

"Um… hello again." Feeling embarrassment heat my cheeks, I held the food out in offering. "Cracker?"

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Ten minutes later we were walking down the trail. I had his map stretched open in front of my face while he trailed behind, feeding bits of cracker to Li.

"Is Li your only pokemon?" I asked, slowing my pace so that I could walk beside him.

I watched as he broke another cracker in two, tossing half to her and popping the other half into his own mouth. "Yes." His eyes clicked to mine, and he looked as if he were about to say something, but seemed to decide against it.

"You two seem really close. Have you known each other for a long time?"

"Yes."

"Am I bothering you?"

"Yes."

Muttering an apology, I quickened my pace. Tears welled.

From behind me, I could hear Li make a reproachful sound. There was the sounds of a scuffle and a muffled _"Ouch,"_, followed by a _"Fine." _A moment later Asher appeared beside me, his hair sticking up even more than it had earlier. He was scowling, and a faint redness had spread across the tops of his cheekbones. "Hey, look… Wait, are you crying?"

"No. I just have something in my eye." My voice wavered.

"Oh, for the love of…" He exhaled loudly. "Why do you always _cry _so easily? Even when I first saw you back in Jubilife, you looked like you were going to burst into tears…"

I scrubbed at my eyes. "I've always been like this, okay? I already get enough crap about it at home; I don't need to hear it from you, too."

"Okay, okay. _Arceus, _just knock it off, okay?"

Despite my best efforts, a few tears escaped. "That's a horrible thing to say!"

"Ugh!" Startled at his outburst, I looked over to see that his face was entirely red. He was glaring off into the middle distance, his brows creased. "I'm sorry, alright? I'm really sorry, so _please_ stop crying." When he caught me staring, he averted his eyes. "Look, if you want to know so badly, then yes, I've known Li for a long time. Close to three years, now. Technically, she's not _my _pokemon- she just follows me around; I haven't caught her with a pokeball- but she doesn't seem to mind the nickname I've given her." He turned his face away. "There. Satisfied?"

"Yes." Taking a calming breath, I mopped up the rest of my tears. "Isn't that unusual, though? Absols are classified as disaster pokemon; don't they only come down from the mountains to warn people of natural disasters?"

He glanced back at Li. "It's not only natural disasters- absols have been known to foreshadow any type of tragedy." His eyes clicked back to mine. "You seem to know a lot about them. Are you training to be a pokeologist?"

"No." It was obvious that he was using the conversation to keep me too distracted to cry again, and I was grateful for it. "I was going to major in Liberal Arts, actually, but I made some stupid decisions and got myself caught up in this mess."

His eyebrows rose. "How do you plan to go to college, and end up a trainer instead?"

My sigh rose up into the air, the same colour as the clouds above. "It's a long story."

"We have time."

"Why should I tell you anything about myself when you keep refusing to tell me anything about you?"

Though it was only a slight change in expression, I noted that his frown disappeared. "Why do you want to travel with me, even though I'm being such a dick to you?"

"Because my Xtransceiver died, and I need your map." I paused, drying the last of my tears. "Plus, if Looker comes back then I can use you as a human shield."

His lips turned slightly upwards. "So are you going to tell me how you became a trainer or not?"

"Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you…"

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

By the time I had finished, a light drizzle had begun to fall. Asher blinked at me, his eyelashes beaded with water.

"You have awful luck," he said eventually. _"Too _awful, almost."

I tucked a damp lock of my hair behind my ear. "What do you mean?"

"Don't you find it suspicious?" His gaze was sharp enough to cut glass. "You and your boyfriend stumble across those two men at Lake Verity, and suddenly Looker and that researcher are after you? What are the odds?"

My cheeks warmed. "He's my best friend, not my boyfriend. Other than that, you have a point. The researcher seemed to know me, but she definitely knew you. She looked to be around our age, and had bright red hair. Do you know anyone that looks like that?"

"No." His frown deepened. "Speaking of, you said that she was part of 'Galactic Industries'. What is that?"

"I only heard about them a few days ago, but apparently it's a new company. I don't know what they specialize in, but I attended a speech of theirs, and their talk of the Old World was fascinating." I lifted my eyes up towards the skies, and watched as the cold began to turn the rain to snow. "The things they were saying were disturbing, though. They seem to think that the world has changed for the worst."

"People are always scared of change, even if we've had centuries to cope with it." Interest lightened the gray of his eyes. "You're interested in the Old World?"

I felt myself begin to smile. "Yeah, History was always my favourite subject in school." _I loved hearing about the world before nuclear radiation altered the DNA fabric of plants and animals. I would've liked to see squirrels before they evolved into pachirisus, and plants like ferns and poison ivy before they morphed into Grass-type pokemon,_ I wanted to say, but knew that he probably wouldn't care.

It may have just been a trick of the light, but I thought that his expression seemed a little less guarded than it had been before. "History used to be one of my favourites as well. Is it true that Eterna Forest used to be an Old World city?"

"Yes. It used to be a city called 'Rome', or '_La città eterna' _in Italian, which was one of the Old World languages. After nature reclaimed it, it was renamed 'Eterna Forest'. It's a popular tourist site in the summer months." I cast another look up at the sky. "With the way the climate's changed, though, I doubt it'll be very busy now."

As if on cue, the forest came into sight. The ruined husks of skyscrapers pierced the tops of the trees, murders of murkrows swarming like black clouds above.

"I've heard it's filled with ghosts," he said. Li padded up to walk beside him, giving him what I thought was a concerned look.

"What, are you superstitious?" I asked.

He paused, and, instead of disregarding my question, gave me a heavy, searching look. "More like I'm afraid of being haunted," he said before brushing past me, leaving me staring after him in confusion.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Tendrils of mist crawled along the forest floor, seething around our feet like breath. The trees moaned and creaked, their branches quavering in a nonexistent breeze. The cries of murkrows rebounded dissonantly off the trees, rising in a wailing chorus of the damned.

But none of that mattered, because I had just caught a buneary.

"I can't believe it," I gasped, hugging the pokeball to my chest. "I've always wanted a buneary!"

"I'm so happy for you."

Still embracing the capsule, I spun around to face him. "You didn't even try to make that sound convincing," I accused.

"Oh, believe me," he sighed, "if I cared any more, I'd pass out."

Ignoring him, I called out my newly-caught pokemon. It materialized one centimeter at a time: the light travelled from its tufted ears down to the pads of its feet, its fur the colour of brown sugar. Round eyes blinked up at me, and a smile broke out across my face when its button nose twitched.

"_Buneary: The Rabbit Pokemon,"_ my pokedex read out. _"Its ears are always rolled up. They can be forcefully extended to shatter even large boulders. Gender: male."_

With his large eyes and yellowish tufts of fur, I knew exactly what to nickname him. "I'll call you Hunny," I said, the joy at catching him momentarily chasing away the deep-rooted grief I had been feeling all morning. Carefully, I leaned over to run my fingers across his head. "I love you already!"

"Before you start making out with it, let it be known that rabies are common among forest-based pokemon."

I scowled, but couldn't think of a retort. I settled for just returning Hunny to his capsule. "Anyways, since you're the one with the map now, which way are we heading?"

He scowled back at me. "Well if you hadn't run off after that pokemon, maybe I'd know." Running a hand through his already mussed hair, he peered down at the map. "I believe we're here," he muttered. Then, to me: "Just keep walking to the right for now. And try not to go chasing any more pokemon."

"No promises," I said under my breath. He rolled his eyes, but didn't comment further as we travelled deeper into the forest.

It was a quiet place: the trees seemed to leach all sound, and our footfalls were swallowed up by the undergrowth. The ground was incredibly uneven, and there were times where Asher had to help me climb up a particularly steep crest in the landscape. "It's because of what's buried beneath us," I said in answer to his puzzled expression. "The forest has grown to cover some of the smaller buildings, and things like cars and trains. We're walking on rooftops right now."

He looked down at the forest floor, his thin face solemn. I turned my gaze upwards, taking in the scenery. The forest itself seemed sad, the branches heavy with memories; leaves cast shadows across our skin, and they would rearrange themselves with every icy gust of wind that blew past. We walked past skyscrapers strangled by vines, their windows filled with the nests of Bird pokemon.

"It's beautiful."

Asher's voice snapped me back to attention. "What?"

"It's beautiful," he repeated. I glanced over to see him staring up at the remains of an old fountain, the rusted spouts eaten away by time. "It's beautiful how life kept going, even though the city was destroyed." He tilted his head towards the budew that had made their home in the dried-up fountain, huddled underneath the cover it provided.

I stopped. His lips were turned down not in one of his angry scowls or frowns, but in gentle melancholy: his jawline looked soft in the twilight the forest provided, his eyelashes hanging low over his eyes. As I watched, he stretched one long-fingered hand towards the budew, who gave small squeaks of curiosity.

"You didn't strike me as the type to appreciate beauty," I said, and regretted it instantly: looking as if he had just remembered I was there, he gave himself a slight shake, and straightened. The watchfulness reappeared on his face, though I thought a tinge of sadness still remained.

"We've wasted enough time talking. Come on; let's try to get out of here before nightfall," he said, and I was left with no choice but to follow after him as he strode on ahead of me.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Nine hours had passed. Asher sat on the remnants of what looked to have once been a church, judging by the cross that poked up through the forest floor. "It's official: you have no sense of direction whatsoever."

"You're the one with the map," I said, gripping my elbows in an attempt to stop shivering. Night had fallen, and the temperature had dropped with it- the once light snow fell heavily now.

Seeing me shivering, he got to his feet and shrugged off his jacket, draping it over my head. "The map is useless, considering that when you ran off after that buneary I lost track of where we were."

"Well, you're the one that refused to ask for directions when we passed that hiker earlier." I tried handing the jacket back to him, but he shook his head. Caving in, I slid my arms through the sleeves and huddled in the oversized material.

"Let's try to find some even ground so we can set up camp for the night," he said. Li made a noise of protest, trotting up to butt her head against his knee. "Hm?"

She jerked her head to the left, the violin case swinging from her teeth. I followed her gaze, and nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw it.

A manor- an ancient one, by the looks of it- was somehow still standing. The paneling was in shambles, the doors overridden by fungus.

"It looks like we won't have to set up camp after all."

I turned to gape at him. "You can't be serious. It would be unsafe to sleep in there."

"It would be more unsafe to sleep out here; we'd be a lot more vulnerable to wild pokemon." He started heading towards the house, not even bothering to listen to my reply.

Huffing, I stood my ground for a moment before reluctantly following after him. "I'll end up running out of there like a zubat out of hell," I warned him.

"I can imagine that."

"You won't have to in a minute."

We stepped over branches and broken glass as we made our way to the front doors. My heart was pounding slow and hard, sweat beading on my palms. Fear snaked around my vocal cords, ready to squeeze a scream from me at a second's notice.

He put his hand on the knob. "Asher, wait-," I began, but it was too late: the doors were swinging inwards, revealing the blackness within, and my arms flew up to cover my face.

An awkward silence spanned between us when nothing happened.

"…If you're this jumpy about me opening a door, then what will you be like when we actually get _inside_ the house?"

I stayed silent, too busy peering around the foyer to reply: it was cavernous, with a ceiling that stretched into darkness and a chandelier that long-broken crystals swayed from. Twin staircases spiraled upwards, and a doorway flanked by two statues sat between them. The walls were filled with newspaper clippings, yellowed and deteriorated.

"The only thing you should be worried about is that there might be wild pokemon nesting here," he continued. "And even then, they won't bother us if we don't bother them."

I dug a flashlight out of my bag, and flicked it on. I swept the beam across the room, illuminating the dust particles that swirled through the air like stars. "Actually, what I'm really worried about is how this place is still standing," I said. "It must be from the Old World- those statues are of wolves, not houndooms- but for some reason it wasn't swallowed up by nature like everything else."

"People must be maintaining it." He held out his hand, and I gave him the flashlight. "Why, though?"

"I have no idea." He approached the newspapers, his back to me. "This place must be important, though. I'm going to go look around."

"We shouldn't split up! That's how horror movies start."

"Relax. Li will stay with you," he said. The absol dipped her head in agreement, placing the violin case on the floor. Her red eyes were luminous in the gloom, and they blinked up at me with a peculiar sort of kindness.

"Fine," I sighed, but he was already gone.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

_There are cities drowned beneath the waves of the Kanto Sea: apartments and skyscrapers break the surface like underwater volcanoes, _I wrote. _The ocean's floor is cratered with cars, and luvdiscs make waterlogged houses their homes, the sidewalks as empty as the cracks that run between them._

_{New York is the new Atlantis.}_

"Oh, there you are." Asher's voice startled me from my thoughts. Li looked up from where she had rested her head on my lap, blinking sleep from her eyes. "What are you doing up here?"

I closed my journal. "Enjoying the stars; you can see them really clearly from here." It was true: Li had nudged me up one of the staircases, and I had found myself in the attic. The roof had given away over time, leaving a huge patch of the sky visible.

The wooden floor creaked when he settled himself beside me. "Is that a diary?" he asked, plucking the journal from my hands.

"Hey! Don't just take other people's stuff," I cried, making a grab for it. My shout caused a few nesting zubats to take off into the night.

Using our height difference to his advantage, he held it calmly out of my reach, and flipped through the pages. His lips moved soundlessly as he read out some of my writings, and I reached for it desperately, embarrassment heating my cheeks. "Give it back!"

The beginnings of a smirk had begun tilting his lips, but when he saw my expression it was wiped off his face. "A-Arceus, I'm sorry, alright?" he said, dropping the journal back into my hands. "Don't cry."

"I wasn't going to." The stars cast everything in a soft, candlelit glow, giving me just enough light to see that a blotchy pinkness had spread down his cheeks and neck. _He always freaks out when he thinks I'm going to cry… does crying make him uncomfortable?_

Turning his head away, he leaned over to scratch Li's neck. I glanced down at my journal, which had opened to show two of my haikus.

_what do you do when_

_you know that you won't turn out_

_the way you wanted?_, read the first one.

_you count to ten and_

_count the stars, and all the ways_

_you might fall apart. _

"Sorry for yelling," I sighed, shutting the book. "It's just that this is my private journal. It's where I write my feelings down, and what I do when I need to stop thinking for a while." I bit the inside of my cheek. "Which must sound really stupid."

He was quiet for a moment. I saw him cast a look at his violin case, which Li had brought up with us. "No, I get it." The boards underneath us groaned as he shifted his weight. "Do you write stories, or just… snippets of things?"

"Just snippets," I said. "I don't have anything worthwhile to write a story about."

He shifted again, the pinkness not quite yet fading from his face. "Do you know any Old World stories?"

He still spoke gruffly, but it warmed me a little to see that he didn't completely hate me. "I know a few. Let me think." I canted my head back to look at the stars: they were so beautiful, and seemed so near. They twined through the air like strings.

"Oh! I just remembered one." I turned so that I was facing him. "It's not a _story,_ really, but it's one of my favourite Old World legends."

He raised an eyebrow. "Go ahead, then."

"There used to be a myth about soulmates. It was thought that destined lovers were connected by an invisible red string that was tied around each of their pinkies, regardless of time or place or circumstance. It was said that the string might stretch or tangle, but that it would never break." I smiled sheepishly. "I don't know why I like it so much, but it's stuck with me ever since I read about it in one of my textbooks." I glanced at him. "I noticed that you have an Old World violin. Is it a model?"

"No, it's real. It's been in my family for generations."

There was another beat of silence. "Do you know any Old World songs?" I asked.

His eyes met mine. "Do you want me to play one?"

I perked up. "Would you?"

Shrugging, he leaned over to pop his violin case open. "It's not as if I have anything better to do."

I watched as he stood and got his instrument into position. Li's head lifted, and her dark tail _thwumped_ against the floor in a happy rhythm.

"Okay." He took a deep breath. Guiding his bow to the strings, he began to play, and I felt my mouth drop open.

A slow, sweet song filled the air, the notes rising and falling in an almost bittersweet tune. The notes hung like smoke in the air, twining and overlapping in gentle harmony.

He played for a few minutes, eyes closed, his expression utterly absorbed. There was something about his face that made me want to write about him: he was different when he was playing, and it showed. It was like he became the music he was playing.

The sound of someone clearing their throat snapped me out of my trance. I looked up to see Asher staring at me, eyebrows raised. "Well? What did you think?" he asked.

"You play really beautifully," I said, and it was the truth. "Are you a travelling musician?"

Just like that, any hints at friendliness were gone. I could practically see his guard go up again, a veil crashing down over his eyes.

Li purred a sad noise as he crouched, placing his violin carefully back into its case. He bent his head, his coppery hair falling forwards to hide his face. "Is that really what you think?"

I blinked. Air swept in through the rafters, littering our hair with bits of snow. "What?"

"Why else would you-," he started to say, but bit off the words. "Forget it." He turned away sharply. One of the particularly moldy floorboards shrieked in protest.

"Watch where you're walking," I warned, taking a step towards him. "The floors here are-"

The sound of wood giving way rebounded off the walls. I screamed in shock and fear as the floor splintered beneath me, and I fell.

"_Odile!" _ There was a _thunk _as Asher dropped his violin case, and a hand gripped mine tight enough to hurt. Pain clamped around arm as I dangled in midair, and I gasped, swinging my other hand up to grip the floor. Splinters dug into my palms. "Hang on," he grunted, hoisting me up. I kicked my feet, groaning as I tried to get an arm up.

_Crack._

His scream joined mine as we toppled, the rest of the attic floor falling away. Darkness whistled past me-

"_Gasttlyyyy." _

Plumes of violet surrounded me. I fell, hitting my back against something that caved beneath me, but after lying in pain for a moment I realized that I was still alive. It was hard to breathe- coughs wracked my entire body, forceful enough to make me think I was about to vomit- but I was _alive._ That fall should have killed me.

"A-Asher?"

The response was weak, but there. "Odile."

"Are you okay?"

I heard him cough, and then groan. "I just fell from two stories up. What do you think?"

"Fair enough." I struggled into a sitting position, and found myself staring into the face of a gastly. The dusky vapors that made up its body seethed around its body, only a few shades lighter than the darkness of the house. It bared its long teeth at me in a grin.

"That gastly must have saved us, for whatever reason." I looked over to see Asher on his hands and knees, looking dazed. He gave another small cough. "Their bodies are made up of poisonous gases; that's probably why we're both coughing now." Seeing my look of alarm, he added hastily, "It's only fatal in larger doses; we'll be fine."

The gastly's grin turned a notch brighter, and it nodded, looking proud of itself. It floated around us as Li came dashing down the stairs, nearly knocking Asher over.

"I'm fine," he growled, and shoved the absol off.

_What did we land on, anyway?_ I glanced down to see the broken remains of a dining table beneath us. "Thank you for saving us," I told the gastly, resisting the urge to cough again. "Thank you so much. You saved our lives." I blinked, remembering what had transpired before the fall. "Asher, what did you mean when-"

Not waiting for me to finish, he got to his feet, and walked off. Li nipped at his heels as he went.

I watched him go, heaviness pooling in my chest. _What did he get so upset about?_ I wondered. _It came out of nowhere, too…_

My thoughts were interrupted by a tongue running up my cheek. Nose crinkling, I looked over at the gastly, whose tongue was lolling from its mouth. "Would you like to travel with me?" I asked it. "You seem to like me, for whatever reason."

Grinning, it came to nuzzle the side of my face. "It's decided, then. It's nice to meet you… Kaito."

_I hope I won't kill you, too. _

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

The next morning was stiff. Asher refused to talk to me, even after I had tripped and caught a bidoof by accident.

Eventually, Eterna City came into sight. We walked down a series of docks, since most of the route was taken up by a large, man-made pond: goldeen and poliwags swam through its clear waters, scattering when we neared.

Eterna City was smaller than I had expected, and busier. People in masks of silver and gold packed the streets; banners stretched between every ivy-laced building, bearing the name of some sort of festival.

All of a sudden, my feet were swept out from under me. I fell to the ground, smacking my already sore elbow against the cobblestone. A forehead banged against mine, and me and whoever had crashed into me ended up in a tangled heap of arms and legs.

"Jeez, sorry," groaned a voice that I knew all too well. My eyes flew open to find a familiar face millimeters from mine. "My bad."

"_Damion?"_ I gasped.

His eyes- still their same warm hue, tawny and sun-specked- opened, his lashes fluttering against my face. He gaped at me before rolling off, yanking me into a sitting position shortly after.

"Odile!" he exclaimed, hardly seeming to believe it. Seeing him felt like air filling oxygen-starved lungs; the relief of him being here was so great that I forgave him instantly for ditching me before. I reached out to hug him, but his eyes had slid away from me and had locked on something over my shoulder.

Confused, I twisted around to see Asher standing behind me. His lips were set in a thin line, and a fine tremor shook the hand that was clutching his violin case.

I looked back to Damion, watching as emotions played across his face: disbelief, doubt, and then, finally, horror.

"Damion?" Dread coiled around my heart and squeezed. "What's wrong?"

"Odile…" His eyes flicked to me, where they rested with a deep-rooted panic. "Why were you walking with _him?"_

"We travelled together for a bit."

Damion took a deep breath, and even before the words registered I could feel my heart drop.

"Odile, I remember seeing that guy's face in the news. He's Asher Oshiro, the runner-up-Champion in Hoenn. And he's wanted for murdering his pokemon team."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

*Edited.

_A/N:_

_Enormous thanks to Ebaz for helping me with this chapter! Not only did you edit and give opinions, but you also went through a lot of trouble to pick a song for Asher to play, which ended up being the 'Swan Lake Suite'. _

_Also, even though I met Kaito after Gardenia's gym, I decided to rearrange the order a little in order in enhance the plot._

_Pokemon obtained in this chapter:_

_*Hunny the buneary. Met in Eterna Forest, lv. 11. Quirky nature, capable of taking hits. Happily eats anything. Ability: Run Away. Named after a character from _Ouran High School Host Club.

_*Kaito the gastly. Met in the Old Chateau, lv. 17. Impish nature, hates to lose. Likes sour food. Ability: Levitate. Named after a character from _Vocaloids.

_*Bieber the bidoof. Met on Route 205, lv. 12. Impish nature, somewhat stubborn. Likes sour food. Ability: Simple. Named after a teen idol that I dislike, since I dislike bidoofs and I just thought that nickname fit._

_Confessions In The Moonlight, by Joe Hisaishi: Although it's an instrumental, I really thought that both the title and the mood of the song itself really fit Asher and Odile's conversation in the attic. Another runner-up for this chapter was The Forgotten Robot Soldier, also by Joe Hisaishi, since it fit Eterna Forest amazingly well. If you haven't already heard it, I would beg of you to look it up._


	12. Chapter Ten

**Disclaimer: **PikachuPrincess: Thanks for adding this to your alerts; please do review when you have the time! Ebaz: OH YES, THAT CLIFFHANGER. Trololol. Anywho, you're not a horrible reviewer! About Asher… seriously, Odile has the worst luck ever with meeting people. First Looker, now this. Honestly. Oh jeez, I know absolutely nothing about violin-playing and whatnot, so let's just pretend that Asher is the Chuck Norris of violinists and can magically play his instrument on his knee : ) And that periodic-table thing was so neat! Random Onlookers: That's what I like to hear! Crown of Gold: Thanks for your input! Olih: Lol I was quite proud of that line myself X D Oh, that 'there was a hole here' thing was a ref. to Silent Hill : ) AH GOD BIEBER seriously and I thought I was gonna be lucky and not have to catch a bidoof, but there he was, trollin' me. And that chapter is SO long: 41 pages, actually. Awwww, thanks! I'm glad to hear that everyone was shocked by Asher's identity-reveal. PokePlatinum: I said it all in my PM : ) Champion Jack: Vocaloids are just that great X D Arch: Who knows what will go on in that PC? D X In all seriousness, though, I don't mind waiting for you to continue your story- it's just that awesome (butthesuspenseiskillingme) Hm...it's funny: you're the only one that has doubts about Asher. Well, we'll see how that plays out! See ya in a while, crocodile : ) Arther: Len is my favourite, and Rin comes a close second. Kaito is my third fave = P Sylanc: Thanks for adding this to your alerts; please do review when you have the time! Chandlure: Thanks for all the adding to your favourites/ alerts! Do review when you get the time! Fromidam: Thanks for the alert! Do review when you have the time!

The song for this chapter is (if you want to get into the mood of the story): 'Down' by Jason Walker.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

**Chapter Ten: Down**

For a small eternity I stood there in astonished silence, and then a long-forgotten memory flitted in front of my mind's eye: a memory of me on my laptop, and seeing _Sinnoh Now_'s website report breaking news on someone in Hoenn charged for slaying his pokemon team.

Back then I had only glanced at it long enough to shake my head in disgust before going to check my email. Even so, I could remember the artist's rendering all too clearly: the angular face, made cruel-looking by the slashes of pencil; the slanted eyes, shaded in with charcoal; the finely-detailed hair; and the wary set of the lips.

Asher. Asher Oshiro.

I couldn't believe that I hadn't remembered until now. Feeling sick to my stomach, I willed Asher to say that it was a case of mistaken identity, although I knew for certain that it wasn't.

Instead he stared back with unrelenting calm.

"Oh, my Arceus," I croaked, horror morphing into a mixture of grief and confusion. "How could you? How could you do that, and then pretend like you _actually cared _about my loss?"

His gaze didn't waver, but I thought that I saw him flinch.

"You bastard." Despite my outrage, I couldn't seem to raise my voice to more than a heated murmur. "Why? Why would you do that? Why would you do any of what you did?"

The pokeball at his waist popped open, and Li sprang out, landing at her master's feet. Her eyes gleamed like rubies, and she growled at me. Capturing both of my hands in his, Damion pulled me farther away from the pokemon, his grip almost painfully tight.

"Hydropump," Damion called, anger plain in his voice. One of his capsules released a buizel, and it landed in front of us with its tail lashing.

"You don't want to fight me," Asher warned him.

"Like hell I don't," growled Damion.

Silence stretched between them, tension charging the air. Around me I could see people nudge each other and point towards us, their faces creased in worry.

Finally, Asher spoke. "Li, stand down," he said in a monotone. Glowering at me, she did.

"Is that the only answer you're going to give?" My hands trembled violently in Damion's.

"What else can I say?" he replied tonelessly. "You seem to have everything figured out."

I stood there choking on responses until Damion piped in. "I'm calling the police."

All at once, Asher looked exhausted. "I can't be arrested for a crime I committed in Hoenn while I'm in Sinnoh," he answered. "The officials have to wait until I return to Hoenn before taking action. You have nothing to call me in for."

"You call what you did _nothing?" _Damion demanded. His hazel eyes were bright with disgust, but he recalled his pokemon nonetheless. "You're an asshole. Stay away from Odile, or I will call the police."

The belligerent look dropped off Li's face, and she whimpered and leaned her head into Asher's leg. His expression remained unreadable. "Are you done trying to be the hero? Because I think I've wasted enough time here."

Damion glared, opening his mouth as if to say something before glancing at me and seeming to decide against it. Steering me away, he took long, purposeful strides that I had to struggle to keep up with.

Glancing back over my shoulder, I saw Asher standing there with his eyes shut tightly- almost as if he was in pain.

I got just a glimpse, though. A second later he was swallowed up by the crowd, and was gone.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

I didn't realise I was crying until Damion had towed me into the room he had rented in Eterna's Pokecenter. My whole body was shaking so hard that my vision wobbled into incoherency, the carpeted floor blurring beneath my feet.

"Are you okay?" Damion kept on asking. "Odile, did he hurt you?"

Shaking my head, I threw my arms around him and buried my face in the overwashed fabric of his shirt. My hands locked behind his back, and I held onto him tightly, wanting to press him as close to my heart as possible. One of his hands moved to gently rest on the back of my head, the other holding me around my waist.

"Odile, what happened?" he asked, a sort of hopelessness layering his voice.

Lifting my head from his soaked shirtfront, I raised what I knew were bloodshot eyes to him, and took a shuddering breath. "I screwed up, Damion. I screwed up so badly."

"Tell me."

Starting with meeting Looker at Jublife, I did. In great detail, I told him about lying to him in Oreburgh because I didn't want him to worry, and the happenings in Floaroma. I told him about Mytho, and that Asher and I had travelled together. I told him everything.

By the time I had finished we had sank to the floor, facing each other. "I just don't get why you didn't tell me any of this before," he said eventually, having spent a few minutes searching for words. "Of course I'd be upset- would you rather me not be?"

"I didn't want you to worry-"

"That a psycho tried to gun you down?" He sighed. "Odile, you're ridiculous. Really."

I sighed as well, my sobs lessening to hiccups. "I'm sorry."

"Promise me you'll never hide anything like that from me again and I'll forgive you."

"I promise," I said immediately.

"Good." He reached out to ruffle my hair. "But, about Mytho… that wasn't your fau- oh, don't give me that look."

"What look?" I asked.

"The one where you seem like you're going to break into a million pieces if I say one more word to you. Just trust me, okay?" When I nodded, he continued in an even gentler voice, "Odile, I know you think it's your fault because you released him from his pokeball, but that's not true at all. He would have tried to help you whether you called him out or not: it would have ended the same anyways. He's gone, and you have to keep going-"

"It's been _two days." _The words hissed out from between clenched teeth. "I'm sick of being told to move on. Besides, you don't know anything about this-"

"Yeah, I do."

His answer brought me up short. "What?"

"I took on this trainer in Jublife. Turns out he had a gyrados." He looked at me squarely, allowing me to see the sadness behind his eyes. "We won, but my starly didn't make it."

I could feel the blood drain from my face. "Damion…"

He waved me off, the corners of his mouth turning up in a smile that didn't touch his eyes. "Don't worry about it: it just made me that much more determined. I mean, I'm not going to promise my team that it _won't _happen again, because I don't know if it will. But what I can promise is that I'll try to be a better trainer and friend to them. And I can promise that I'll learn from my mistakes."

He squeezed my hand, and I squeezed back, feeling a teary laugh bubble up in me. "Since when did you get so mature?"

"I've always been mature," he responded flippantly. "You've just refused to notice." His smile turned real, his expression entreating. "So smile, please? If you don't, I'll throw some more clichés at you."

Smiling, I leaned forward to rest my cheek against his shoulder. "Thanks for always being there for me, Damion."

"Hey, thanks for being the overly dramatic, emotional mess of a best friend that needs me to be there for her," he replied. Lifting my head, I elbowed him. "Sorry, sorry. But you know it's true."

"I know," I admitted, feeling ashamed for ever having thought that he would be angry or disappointed in me because I withheld information from him.

He brushed away the last of my tears with the back of his hand, his tone turning sincere. "I know it hurts right now, but you've always been so much better at the emotional stuff than me. You'll be okay."

"Yeah." Twinges of guilt and grief still caused my chest to ache, but his words had eased their severity. "I think you're right."

His eyes searched mine. "Are you sure that guy didn't hurt you? You're a mess."

I exhaled heavily, and felt my brows knit together. "He didn't hurt me- I told you that he saved my life, didn't I?- but he said some things that really stung, and finding out that he killed his pokemon is horrible. To be honest, connecting him to that newspaper article never even crossed my mind. I just accepted what he told me and didn't look any further into it, even though there were so many hints."

"You've always been gullible, O." He spoke my nickname with weary affection. "And you never did learn how to handle criticism. You just have to keep on chugging, you know? You can't let every single little word break you down."

"I know." Looking down, I gave another gusty sigh. He was right, of course- he knew me too well not to be. Still, the combined weight of his, Asher's and my parents' words caused my shoulders to sag.

His slim, tanned fingers laced through mine, and I found myself being hoisted up. "Well, I think that's enough doom, gloom and finding out that you've been palling around with a murderer for one day," he said in true Damion fashion. "There's a festival going on and a gym to beat, so ditch that extra jacket and let's get going."

"Extra jacket?" Having straightened, I glanced down only to realise that I was still wearing Asher's black jacket overtop of my pink one. Shedding it, resentfulness welled up in me, and I clenched a fistful of the material.

Winding up, I hurled it against the wall, and took satisfaction in the thud it made when it hit the wall. "Alright. Lead the way."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

After giving our pokemon to Nurse Joy for her to heal, Damion and I walked out of the Pokecenter and into the brisk early-afternoon air. We waded through the crowd, and I had to strain to hear what Damion was saying over the chatter.

"…some sort of festival celebrating the legendary pokemon," he was explaining animatedly. "It happens every year around this time, apparently."

"Which legends?" I queried. There were so many mythical pokemon: celebi, the supposed guardian of time; mew, the mother of all pokemon; darkrai, the embodiment of nightmares and darkness…

"Dialga and palkia," was his response. He then went on to quote our Mythology textbooks, saying with grand gestures, "'The creation of dialga, the giver of time/ In laughter, there is tears/ And likewise, it is with time/ The same time flows on/ For it is the blessing of dialga'."

"'The birth of palkia, the creator of parallel dimensions/ Alive, yet not alive/ Everything drifts in space/ To arrive in the same universe/ It is the blessing of palkia'," I finished, grinning. "How'd you remember that, anyway? You flunked Mythology."

He shrugged. "I heard some weird blue-haired guy babbling about it. Actually, he was dressed like those other space freaks. He was probably one of them."

"Team Galactic? Here?" My head swivelled on its own accord to glance around, the memory of Mars and her nails causing my hand to flutter up to my still-healing cheek.

"Yeah." He was frowning. "See that building over there? The one with the thorns? Well, I've seen a whole bunch of them go in and out of there."

The building he spoke of was shoved into the corner of the city, painted off-white with spikes protruding from each level. It was surrounded by a chainlink fence, and as I watched a green-wigged grunt exited, sliding some sort of card through the slot that caused part of the fence to swing open and allow him through. It closed quickly behind him.

I wrapped my fingers around Damion's wrist, forcing him to stop. "I don't want to be here if there's any chance that Looker will show up."

"I wouldn't worry about it," he told me, beginning to walk again and pulling me along behind him. "From what you said it sounds like Mytho and Asher's"- his mouth curled in distaste around the name–"pokemon roughed him up pretty good. Besides, you told me that the police have a description of him; they've probably caught up to him by now."

"I hope so." We went to stand by a stall selling cotton-candy, where it was a tad quieter. "So, have you challenged the gym yet?"

"Not yet. You said you wanted to watch, right?"

"Right." Motioning for me to wait a second, he fished some change out of his pocket and handed it over to the man behind the stall, and received a cotton-candy in return. He offered it to me, and I took a bite. "The leader here is Gardenia the grass-type trainer, isn't it?"

"Yep." He took a bite as well, and then grinned at me from around a mouthful of pink cloud-stuff. "My team's been training hard; we'll K. O her before she can make a move."

My head leaned to the side, and I stared at him in disbelief. "How can you be so cocky after you've lost a teammate?"

"Because I have every reason to be cocky," he replied with confidence. "I've made sure that I'm ready for this, and that my pokemon are, too. You shouldn't be afraid of battling, Odile."

I ripped off a chunk of cotton-candy with my fingers, and popped it into my mouth before my fingertips became sticky. "I guess so."

His eyes flicked over my face, and, with a determined squaring of his jaw, shoved the cotton-candy into my hands. "I'll prove it to you," he said in response to my confused expression. "Let's go get our pokemon, and then I'll prove to you that battles aren't scary."

Giving me no time to reply, he darted off towards the Pokecenter, and I was left with no choice but to follow.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Eterna's gym was modelled after a greenhouse, with an all-glass exterior that allowed the sun to light the abundance of greenery inside. Long, unruly grass curled underfoot as Damion and I stepped in, the sliding glass door closing behind us.

A woman watering a cluster of persim flowers glanced up, her face smudged with dirt and dew. "Are the two of you here to challenge Gardenia?"

Damion looked uncertainly at me. "Yes?"

"Yes," I confirmed. Even if I was scared to lose another pokemon, I still had to complete the eight-badge run.

She straightened. "I'm afraid you'll have to wait a while. She's finishing up with another challenger." Placing the watering can on the ground, she wiped her dirty hands on the front of her work clothes, and gave us a smile. "However, I can battle you in the meantime. Which one of you is challenging her first?"

"He is." I nodded at Damion.

"Okay. You can take a seat over there." She gestured at me, and then to the ivy-lined bleachers.

"Alright. Good luck, Damion," I said, beginning to move towards the seats.

"Who needs luck when you have skill?" he answered, grinning. Rolling my eyes, I climbed into the front row of the bleachers. Sitting, I watched as the woman distanced herself from Damion, taking out a pokeball from the pocket of her shirt.

"Challengers first," I heard her say.

"Thanks. Flashfire, start this off!" Damion tossed a pokeball out of the air, and I couldn't help but chuckle at the very Damion-esque nickname as a ponyta materialised a meter away from him. He caught the pokeball expertly, the white flash of his smile visible from where I sat.

"Budew," the woman called, releasing a tiny pokemon the size of my fist. Damion's grin turned into a smirk.

"Flashfire, Flame Wheel!"

The ponyta was aglow in an instant, and it charged the smaller pokemon, its head lowered.

The woman was smiling. "Budew, dodge it."

Flashfire threw its whole body into the attack, the fire on its pelt causing the air around it to shimmer with heat waves. I could see its dark eyes grow wide as it sped past the place where the budew had been a moment ago, wheeling around to find that it had nimbly thrown itself out of range.

Damion seemed pleasantly surprised. "Ember!"

Flashfire opened its mouth and spewed a series of embers at the grass pokemon. The budew attempted to scramble away, but ended up singed and unsteady on its feet. After a minute of swaying it fell to the ground in a faint.

The woman recalled her pokemon, her placid smile still in place. "Good match, challenger."

He returned the sentiment with enthusiasm, and Flashfire trotted up to him, extinguishing the flames on its body. Lifting a hoof, the pokemon tapped Damion's outstretched fist in a brohoof.

I applauded, not feeling the least bit surprised at how easily he had won. It was Damion, after all: ever since the first grade he had been obsessed with becoming a trainer. He had diligently taken notes on everything our Training 101 professor had said, and had memorized type weaknesses and advantages. Like Cecile had once said to me, he was exactly like his dad.

Well, all the good parts of him, of course. He would never be the bad parts.

The sound of hands clapping together brought me out of my thoughts. Turning my head, I saw a middle-aged woman enter from the door that led to the gym arena, applauding with her eyes on Damion. A male trainer shoved past her, and, with his chest heaving with sobs, darted across the gym and out the front doors.

"That looked like a fun battle," she remarked in a voice that carried, not seeming to be perturbed by the upset trainer. Mud-caked boots covered her legs up to her knees, baggy brown shorts fitting loosely around her hips. A strip of her stomach was visible, since her raggedy green shawl and sports bra ensemble left her abdomen bare. Her face was fiercely thin, and accented by the severe cut of her auburn hair. "You must be Damion Jun."

Damion tore his eyes away from the retreating form of the trainer to look at her, giving a smile that overflowed with earnestness. "It was, but how do you know my name?"

"It is each gym leader's duty to email the next gym leader once they are beaten," she explained, coming to stand before him. She was around my height, but she wore an aura of authority that made her seem much taller. "Roark told me about you and your friend"- she cast the briefest of looks at me –"and told me what an entertaining battle the two of you had. However, it's time for me, Gardenia, to gauge your expertise. Are you ready?"

"I was born ready," he replied, already fired up. Returning Flashfire, he turned to me. "C'mon, Odile."

I hopped off the stands, my bag smacking against my hip and the cotton-candy still in my hand as I approached them. "So you're Odile," she murmured, her eyes as sharp as pickets as they rested on me. "Roark told me much about you."

"Good things, I hope?" The disapproval in her voice made me think of the boy that had run out, and I found myself beginning to grow nervous.

Her mouth thinned, her assessing gaze roving over me once more before she led us through the back door and into the arena without giving me a reply. Cheri trees rimmed the room, with a few of them spouting up from the grass on the battlefield. On one end there was another set of bleachers, this one much grander than the one in the lobby, and on the other stood a throne decorated with various plants and flowers. Gardenia went to perch herself on the arm of the throne, while Damion stationed himself at the opposite end of the arena. I seated myself on the end of the bleachers, nibbling on my cotton-candy.

"We'll both be using two pokemon for this match," called Gardenia from across the battlefield. "The match will go on until both pokemon on either side faint, or if either of us forfeit. I will be the ref for this match, and we'll start as soon as you're ready."

Damion freed his first pokeball from his belt, and I felt the capsules around my necklace shake as my pokemon released themselves. Kaito hovered at my shoulder, his long pink tongue extending to frightening lengths to steal a hunk of my cotton-candy, and Odette sat quietly beside me. Winry and Tesserae sat at my feet, with Hunny sitting between Winry's shoulder blades. Hatter plopped onto my lap, and ignored how I groaned at his weight.

"Why are you guys out?" I asked, shifting to get more comfortable.

Hatter chirped and pointed a flipper at the arena. I nodded, getting the gist of what he was trying to say. "I guess it makes sense that you guys want to watch. We're up next, you know."

Chirruping, he bobbed his hat-covered head in a nod, his eyes slivers of determination.

We fell silent as Damion threw a pokeball high into the air. "Whirlwind, let's do this!"

A broad-winged staravia took shape in the air, letting out throaty battle cries as it circled the arena. _He replaced his starly? _I thought, startled. I couldn't imagine replacing Mytho; the constant reminder would be too painful.

"An obvious choice based on type advantage, but not thought out well," commented Gardenia, enlarging the capsule in her hand before releasing her first pokemon. "Cherrim."

A plum-coloured pokemon materialised on the ground, and the match commenced.

"Whirlwind, Peck!" commanded Damion.

"Sunny Day!" Gardenia ordered at the same time.

Whirlwind readied itself for the Peck attack, but the sudden brightness of the sun caused it to falter and blink its dazzled eyes. I squinted, putting an arm to my forehead to block out the sunshine.

I could see Damion put an arm to his brow as well, while Gardenia slid a pair of sunglasses on. "Solarbeam," she instructed.

Narrowing my eyes against the harsh glare of the sun, I saw the cherrim's dark corolla curl outwards, revealing the rosy petals underneath. Its suddenly-visible amber eyes narrowed, its tiny mouth opening to release a ray of concentrated light.

"Dive!" Damion shouted, but it was too late: the beam had struck Whirlwind, causing it to fight to keep itself airborne. A low noise of deprecation was torn from my throat at how painful the blow looked, despite the fact that Whirlwind showed no outward sign of pain.

"Double Team!" yelled Damion. Whirlwind complied, closing its eyes and forming a ring of shimmering, wavering copies of itself around the arena.

Gardenia's gaze was cool and calculating. "A novice move," she commented, "but one that suits the situation. While your father attacks with brute strength, you seem to have your uncle's knack for strategy."

I stiffened, and glanced at Damion to see his reaction. Surprise and discomfort skittered over his face, and sympathy targeted my midriff: Damion hated it when people brought up his family relations. "Good job, Whirlwind," he said, his voice far too loud for the relatively small enclosure. "Keep it up, buddy."

The gym leader examined him. "Does your father know that you've started your journey yet?"

I glimpsed Damion's left hand clench into a fist before relaxing. "Maybe," he said, his eyes on Whirlwind. "It depends if my mom told him."

A knowing smile tugged on her lips. "I'm sure he'd be delighted if you told him."

I shot her a glare that I hoped she saw: she was overstepping her boundaries, and I wished that she knew how nasty she sounded.

Damion paused, and when he replied his voice was steely with focus. "No offense, but I didn't come here to chat."

Her lips curled further. "True. Cherrim, you know what to do!"

The grass pokemon sucked in a deep breath before emitting another Solarbeam, twisting its small body around so that the beam could sweep around the area. It blasted each copy of Whirlwind with blinding speed, until at last they were extinguished.

Gardenia's mouth jerked. "Where-"

The actual Whirlwind erupted from behind a clump of cheri trees, and dive-bombed the cherrim before any of us could blink. With a powerful flap of its wings Whirlwind soared into the air, the cherrim trapped in its talons. The grass pokemon looked incredibly dazed, a line of blood trickling from its mouth.

"Checkmate," grinned Damion.

Gardenia had smoothed her face out again, and was tapping a finger against her cheek. "Cherrim, try a Leech Seed."

The cherrim attempted to free its vines in order to stick the Leech Seeds to Whirlwind, but the bird pokemon's talons held it in too tight of a grip.

"Round Two, then?" Damion asked, smiling ear to ear.

"I'd tell you to never assume things like that, but… it seems that you have me beat. Cherrim, return." Red light enveloped the grass pokemon, and the sunlight dimmed back to normalcy as it was returned to its capsule. "And no, I don't think that another round is necessary. You've proven yourself flexible in battle, and that's enough to be deserving of your second gym badge."

Damion recalled Whirlwind, and jogged up to Gardenia. She met him halfway, and I saw her press a thumb-sized object into his hand. "Damion Jun," I heard her say, "I can see much of your father in you, as well as your uncle. You have potential, but know that you lack originality in terms of battle style. You have the basics down; now try and polish up and make things your own."

"I will," was his solemn reply. Once he was facing away from her, though, I saw him grinning that giddy grin of his, and knew that her advice had fallen on deaf ears. "What did I tell you, Odile?" he hollered, waving the badge in his hand at me.

I rolled my eyes, but grinned back at him from over the top of Hatter's head.

Gardenia took off her sunglasses. "Oh, that's right. You wanted a battle, too, didn't you?" She acknowledged me with the slightest hint of disdain.

Her words wiped the grin clear off my face. "Yes, ma'am."

She repositioned herself on the throne, plucking a pokeball from the pocket of her shorts. "The rules are the same," she told me. "When you're ready we'll begin."

Damion grimaced at me sympathetically. "You'll do fine; don't look so stressed. Remember: battles are fun."

"Battles are fun," I recited, taking a steadying breath.

"Right," he said encouragingly. "So go out there and have some fun."

He sat down on the bleachers, and I deposited Hatter onto the bench before turning to face my team. "Who's volunteering for this?"

Kaito had stolen my cotton-candy and was now gnawing on the cardboard handle, completely ignoring me. Winry and Hunny both perked up. Odette continued to stare straight through me, and Tesserae nosed a few flowers on the ground, glancing up at me with round eyes.

Hatter pointed to Tess, and then Odette. I nodded. "Tesserae and Odette have type advantages," I agreed. "Winry would be resistant to grass, though, and she's more suited to battle." Slanting a look at Odette, I asked in the gentlest voice I could manage, "Odette, are you up to battling?"

She blinked slowly in response to her name, but did nothing else.

"Then I think you'll start us off, Tesserae, with Win as our back up." Winry and Tesserae lifted themselves off the ground, and I went to stand at the challenger's end of the arena, Winry at my heels and Tesserae stationed in front of me. "Are you two ready?"

Tess snorted an affirmative, and Winry purred, already limbering up.

"We're set," I called to Gardenia.

"Yes, but you aren't prepared in the slightest. Turtwig," she commanded, releasing the green starter pokemon.

"Tesserae, Flame Wheel!" I ordered. Like in my previous gym battle, excitement caused my blood to sing, fear mingling with it in my veins and causing each limb to tingle. I remembered the euphoria that I had experienced when I had won against Roark, and the memory lifted me up and shook off some of my anxiety.

My ponyta's milky fur stood on end, embers tipping each individual hair. In less than a heartbeat her whole body was glowing red-hot, and her hooves leaving scorch marks on the grass as she charged the starter pokemon, steam rising from her nostrils.

"Turtwig, Grass Knot!" Gardenia demanded.

Before I had time to react the grass in front of Tesserae twisted into knots, and Tesserae's foreleg caught under one of the loops. There was a crack as she fell to the ground, her leg twisted underneath her. The fire of her Flame Wheel was extinguished in a heartbeat, and as she forced herself into a standing position I could see a ring of burnt grass around her. She was favouring her right leg, which was gingerly lifted off the ground.

"Tess," I cried, "are you alright?"

She whimpered, but shook herself and revived the flames of her Flame Wheel. My gaze shifted to Damion for the briefest of seconds, and I found that he was staring at me intently, as if willing me to make the right choices.

"Keep up the Flame Wheel," I commanded. She did, hindered by her injured leg but still managing to keep up a commendable pace as she rushed towards the turtwig.

"Leech Seed!" Gardenia's turtwig launched a series of Leech Seeds, but all burned off and were made useless by Tesserae's mane of fire. "Turtwig, use your vines!" said Gardenia as Tesserae's fire-enhanced tackle glanced off our opponent, and two dark green vines snaked out from underneath the turtwig's shell, wrapping around Tesserae.

"Tesserae, burn them off!" I shouted. She twisted her head to spit an Ember at them, and they recoiled, their tips singed.

"Wrap them around the legs," Gardenia called.

"Get out of reach!"

Tesserae attempted to dart away, but she accidentally put weight on her leg, and faltered. The turtwig used her moment of weakness to encircle her injured leg and yank down on it, causing Tesserae to topple headfirst to the ground.

"Hey!" I exclaimed.

"There was nothing illegal about that move," Gardenia told me, and I felt resentfulness rise up in me at her tone. "Are you ready to forfeit this round?"

"Tesserae, can you stand?" The question was asked through gritted teeth.

She tried to, but when I glimpsed the pain on her face I quickly motioned for her to give up. She did, slumping gratefully to the ground. "Yes, I forfeit. I'm so sorry, Tessie; you did great. Return."

"No, she didn't," Gardenia interjected. I blinked, surprised and offended. "That was disastrous on both your pokemon's part and yours. Though you seemed to know of the advantages you had against me, your pokemon is obviously not properly trained. Do you battle outside gyms?"

My mouth worked for a moment before I managed to say, "No."

She frowned, her eyes flicking over my face before she began to shake her head. "You aren't enjoying the battle," she stated. "You're uncertain and nervous, and your pokemon are picking up on that. Why are you taking the gym challenge?"

"I-"

"Is this a pastime to you?" she pressed. "A side-quest?"

Déjà vu flooded me, and I shivered.

"What you're doing is childish," she told me flatly. "You don't take the challenge for the sake of taking it. You take it with purpose."

"I am," I said, talking over the voice in my head: the voice of Asher saying to me, _Then not only is what you're doing childish, but unfair to both yourself and your pokemon as well. _"I am taking it with purpose. I'm taking it to prove something."

"Prove something." She twisted the words, made them sound like a weak excuse.

"Yes."

She stared at me hard. Her eyes were sharp enough to cut through glass, and all at once I understood why the boy trainer had run out in tears: she was someone whose words held weight. She was someone who could either crush dreams or rise them up. "There are some people," she began at length, "whose-"

"Whole lives are devoted to battling," I finished, rubbing at the sudden headache that had bloomed along my brow bone. "I know."

"Don't act as if I'm scolding you," she said. "I'm not. I'm talking to you as an equal."

I fought to come up for a response, and came up empty. She gazed at me with grim acceptance, as if I had just proved something to her.

"Come on, Odile!" Damion's voice split the silence in two, and my head snapped around to look at him. He was standing on the bleachers, his hands cupped around his mouth and with my pokemon crowded around him. "Prove her wrong!"

Gardenia sighed at this, looking resigned. "Call out your next pokemon."

"Winry," I ordered, my voice sounding strained to my own ears. She jumped in front of me, her flanks crackling with electricity and anticipation.

"Roserade," she called. A human-sized grass pokemon manifested, and the nod of Gardenia's head signalled the beginning of the next round. "Magical Leaf!"

"Dodge and Bite!" I instructed. Winry ducked as the shimmering red-and-blue petals were flung at her like ninja stars, and then kicked off with her hind legs and soared through the air in a pounce. Her jaws were stretched wide, her head rearing back to ready for the Bite.

Then the Magical Leaves wheeled around mid-air and returned like a boomerang, knocking Winry out of the air in the process.

I gasped. The petals returned to the flowers on the roserade's body, and before I could blink it wrapped its vines around Winry's neck and midsection.

"Now will you listen to me?" Gardenia's voice was like that of a drill sergeant, yanking me from my state of shock.

"Winry, use Spark!" I commanded in reply. My pokemon's fur hissed with electricity, but the roserade endured the shock and instead tightened its grip. Winry let loose a choking snarl, but it was cut off as one of the vines constricted around her jugular.

"If you keep this up, your pokemon will die," Gardenia told me.

"You wouldn't-"

"No, I wouldn't," she agreed flatly. "But what if I would?"

The only answer I could give was silence.

"From here on out," she said, calling her roserade back and allowing Winry to suck in a great lungful of air, "gamble with your own life, not anyone else's."

My lip quivered, and I bit down on it until I tasted blood.

Unhitching herself from her throne, her expression softened by an infinitesimal amount, though her voice remained razor-sharp. "It's clear that you love your pokemon, but putting them in battle is nothing but selfish. I know you'll think that I'm being cruel when I say this, but believe me, others will be even less delicate: you either have to grow up, or go home. Because right now the world of trainers has no room for someone like you."

Tears bit at my eyes, and my hands trembled violently at my sides. Hurt flooded me; partly because of the harshness of her words, and partly because I knew that she was right.

"Odile," Gardenia said suddenly, "do you really want to know what Roark said about you?"

I shook my head.

She didn't seem to notice. "He said that you were a nice girl. A girl that was so nice, in fact, that he let you beat him out of pity."

Tears sprung up and spilled over.

As if from underwater I heard Damion call my name, but I couldn't face him; I couldn't deal with how he was so much more suited at this than I was, couldn't hear his kind words.

So I ran.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Tripping over loose pavement stones and strangers' feet, I ran blindly through Eterna, wanting to put as much distance between myself and the gym as possible. My pokemon were with Damion, so they'd be in good hands, but the thought of being around my pokemon or Damion just made my sorrow intensify.

Finally stopping, I sagged against a great stone statue of dialga and palkia, and cried. I cried about Asher, about my frustration at myself, about Mytho. I cried for the sake of crying.

I cried until I saw a pair of black-booted feet approach me, and I looked up.

A woman stood there, clad in a long black cloak with fur trim and brass buttons. Her wavy hair was the colour of honey in sunlight, the slight brown colouring around her hairline evidence of her having dyed it, and it was long enough to hit the back of her tights-covered knees. Like a handful of other people I had seen, the top half of her face was concealed by a mask: hers was crafted to look like the face of a ninetales, with a long snout and slits for eyeholes. The velvety black material was lined with silver beads, and elaborate silvery swirls decorated the cheeks of the mask.

"Are you alright?" she asked in a voice like wind chimes. From behind the eyeholes I could see the icy flash of her irises, their blueness reminding me momentarily of someone else's eyes.

"Yes, I'm fine." Pushing myself to my feet, I turned, not sure where I was meaning to head off to. Taking a few aimless steps, I ended up staring up at the statue, my shoulders sagging.

The woman came to stand beside me, a respectable distance between us. "They're fantastic, aren't they?" she murmured. "The legends of space and time. They say that there was a third deity among them, as well: the one with the power to create new worlds, new life."

I was struck with the randomness of this conversation, and had to choke back a hysterical laugh. "Giratina, right?"

She nodded. "That's right." Then she turned her head to look down at me. "You're helping out Prof. Rowan with his pokedex, aren't you?"

"Why do you say that?" I asked warily.

"Your pokedex is poking out of your bag."

"Oh." My throat was still constricted, and words were hard to squeeze out. "Who are you?"

Her pale pink lips stretched in a smile. "Cynthia; a trainer just like you."

I shifted, uncomfortable. "I'm not really a trainer."

"Really?" The silvery designs of her mask flashed in the midday light. "I thought I just saw you exiting the gym."

"I did, but…" More tears dripped down my face. "That doesn't make me a trainer."

She turned her body fully to face me. "Did Gardenia beat you?" she asked gently.

"Yes." I thought of how easily Damion had beat her, and felt instantly worse.

She gave a strange little huff, and tilted her mouth up into a sympathetic expression. "Sometimes," she said carefully, thinking the words over before speaking them, "it's better to get angry than to get sad. I mean, sadness is inspiring, but anger is empowering." Her small white teeth flashed. "Know what I mean?"

I did. Sadness was what inspired most of my writing; anger was what usually spurred Damion into action, like it had earlier with Asher. Drying my tears, I nodded, trying to shake off the sting of Gardenia's words.

"Here." Reaching up with her slender hands, she removed the mask, revealing a face that was ravishingly beautiful except for a thick white scar that followed her jawline. Handing the mask over to me, she smiled once again. "I'd like you to have this."

I took it from her, glancing up at her face in confusion. Blush and bronzer was evident in the grooves of her cheeks, the tubes of mascara that encased her lashes making it clear that she was trying to look older than she was. "Thanks, but why?"

"I'm in a gift-giving mood," was her reply. "Goodbye, Odile. Remember what I've told you."

"Thank you, Cynthia. Bye." I watched her melt into the crowd before sighing and slumping against the statue, looking down at the mask in my hands. The silver beads winked mockingly back up at me.

A moment later I felt something warm and wet trail down the back of my neck, and I squeaked, whirling to find myself staring at Kaito. His long pink tongue dangled from his mouth as he chortled, and he materialised fully, the violet vapours of his body mirroring the sky at dusk.

"Gross!" I exclaimed, wiping off the saliva. "Kaito, how did you find me?"

He shrugged with his eyes, as if to say, 'I have my ways'.

I opened my mouth to answer, but a bright glimmer of colour in my peripheral vision stole my attention before I could. My head snapped to the side of its own accord, and I found myself gazing at a man with a shock of hair so blue it tugged at some buried memory, and a woman that I remembered all too clearly.

Mars.

She and the blue-haired man were walking into the spike-covered building, and my sight narrowed into tunnel-vision until all I could see was her blood-red hair and smile. And I thought, as I watched her stroll without a care in the world into the building, _Sometimes it's better to get angry than to get sad. I mean, sadness is inspiring, but anger is empowering._

_Anger is empowering._

Fitting the mask to my face, my hands curled into fists. "C'mon, Kaito."

He made a quizzical noise.

"It's time to prove to everyone just how wrong they are about us," I said, and began striding towards the Galactic building.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

_A/ N: This was supposed to be up yesterday. Ugh. UGH, I SAY._

_And also my internet crashed for, like, a week, which is why this update is so late._

_*Headdesk*_


	13. Chapter Eleven

**Disclaimer: **Arch: I'm glad! (And Derek's not a Gary Stu, you're talking crazy) Ohoho, Asher will be back. Don't you worry about that : ) Pikachu Princess: Thanks for reviewing! Olih: WOOT FOR MLP REFS. Hahaha, that's what I was going for, so thanks! Arther: Len… Dammit, I love Len so much. Especially in 'Spice'. *drools* Yes, Cynthia appeared- and then disappeared… And yes, Damion X D EpicFail: I said it all in my PM : ) Platinum: Thank you so much! I'm glad I pulled off what I was trying to! Ebaz: That review made me d'awww; thank you!

The song for this chapter is (if you want to get into the mood of the story): 'Flowers For A Ghost' by Thriving Ivory.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

**Chapter Eleven: Flowers For A Ghost**

There were no security cameras, no electrified fences or guards: only a chainlink fence that I managed to scale and land clumsily on the other side of in my mission to confront Mars. As soon as my feet hit Team Galactic's turf I expected them to swarm me, but nothing happened. Kaito and I entered the building without anyone trying to stop us, and the doors slid automatically closed behind us.

A green-wigged receptionist glanced up. "Are you here to donate your pokemon?" she asked. Her plastered-on smile faltered a bit as she eyed my mask.

"Yes," I answered too quickly.

She didn't seem to notice. "Head right up the stairs," she told me. "Commander Jupiter is the one that handles donated pokemon. Thank you for your cooperation!"

"Thank _you," _I told her, showing my teeth in what was more of a snarl than a smile. Giving myself no time to reflect on how unutterably stupid my plan was, I walked down the hallway and up the stairs, Kaito at my side. He was grinning with his usual impishness, his eyes agleam.

Ascending the staircase, three voices floated down to me, and my ears strained to catch all the words.

"…We'll need the blood of all three of the spirits, not just the one," said the first in the old, frayed voice of Charon. "In order to make the Red Chain, I require-"

"-Not only the blood of the trio, but of the dragons, as well," finished a gravelly voice that struck a chord of remembrance within me. "Yes, Charon. Our spy is looking into that as we speak."

"But how can we trust this spy?" wheedled Mars.

"You met him in Floaroma," Charon wheezed. "Didn't he seem capable enough to you?"

_Are they talking about Looker? _I wondered as I crept higher.

The gravelly man's voice was full of unshakeable confidence. "He'll do it for her," he assured the group. "There's not a doubt in my mind that he'll do it for her."

Muddled, I stopped right by the doorway, my heart pounding like a war drum in my chest. Confronting Mars was one thing, but waltzing in there with four Galactic members with only Kaito by my side was bordering on Damion-reckless.

With bated breath I took a step back, and then turned, meaning to head back down to the foyer so I could catch Mars after the others had left-

When I found the staircase blocked by a woman, her mauve hair tied into a series of buns and her dark eyes leering down at me.

"Eavesdropping is bad manners, ninetales-girl," she growled in a five-packs-a-day voice. Her body sagged in the latex suit it was clad in, her face lined with wrinkles that were magnified by the clumps of makeup she had artlessly applied.

I glanced around, only to find that Kaito had dematerialised. One of her white-gloved hands flashed out, and I ducked, attempting to slip under her arm and dart down the stairs. My scalp screamed in agony as she grabbed me by the hair and hauled me back before I could, shoving me into the room.

All eyes swung around to rest on me, and I found myself surrounded by the four of the Galactic higher-ups. Mars was perched on a desktop, her stiff white skirt riding up around her knees, with a pile of pokemon eggs and bound and gagged pokemon behind her. Charon stood hunched in the center, a vial of red liquid clutched in one of his wrinkled hands, with the man who I assumed the gravelly voice belonged to standing at his side. The purple-haired woman loomed behind me, blocking the exit.

"Jupiter, what is the meaning of this?" asked the gravelly-voiced man. He had a gaunt, skeletal face that was as elongated as a ponyta's, and insomnia-ridden eyes. What caught my attention, though, was his hair. It was a shade of turquoise so vibrant that it caused a memory to spring up in front of my eyes: a memory of Damion and I crouching in front of Lake Verity, and overhearing two strangers.

This person was one of them.

"She was snooping around," Jupiter replied huskily.

Mars sniffed. "It's so like you to be such a brute about it," she sneered. Then she looked down her nose at me, one clawed hand resting on her waist. "Well, what do you want?"

My heart lunged in my chest. She didn't recognize me from the Windworks. None of them knew who I was.

That meant that I could be someone else.

Taking courage in the fact that the mask concealed my identity, I faced the gravelly-voiced man squarely. "What are you and Looker up to?" I demanded.

His face remained expressionless, even as his eyes sparked with knowing. "I have no idea what you are talking about," he deflected too smoothly.

"That's a lie!" I spat. "You-"

"Don't talk to Cyrus that way!" gasped Mars, her face ashen. Her sharp-nailed hands curled into fists, and the cheek she had scratched tingled at the remembrance of those claws on my skin.

Cyrus lifted a broad hand, effectively silencing her. "How much have you heard?" he queried.

"Enough to land you in jail," I countered.

An angry breath hissed out from between Mars's teeth, but she held her tongue.

Cyrus examined me closely. "If I told you that we want to reform the spiral of time and space that crafts our world, what would you say?"

"I'd say that you don't need to kidnap pokemon to do that," I answered, gesturing to the pokemon behind Mars.

"Obstacles need to be removed," he replied. "Which is why I suggest that you forget anything you might have heard here."

"She's just a child," interjected Charon, his weathered hands worrying the vial.

"That needs to get her tongue ripped out," Mars seemed unable to resist adding.

I found myself backing up a step, only to bump into Jupiter. "So why are you here in the first place, ninetales-girl?" she queried, her guttural voice causing the hairs on my arms to rise. Then she added, "How silly of me to ask. You're here to free the pokemon, aren't you?"

"I'm here because it's your fault one of my pokemon died," I said. "But you're right: I'm not going to let you hurt anyone else's."

"Then I'll deal with you," growled Jupiter. Before she could, however, Cyrus silenced her with another flick of his wrist.

"Allow me," he said. Walking over to the table Mars was perched on, he palmed an egg: a togepi egg, judging by the specks of red and blue that decorated its surface. "You see, this world is corrupted," Cyrus told me in form of explanation. "Human emotions corrupt it. Emotions, for example, like the ones that brought you here: injustice, loathing, and sentimentality. Emotions steer irrationality, and irrationality steers corruption."

"You aren't making any sense," I said.

"Aren't I?" The harsh planes of his face seemed to grow grimmer as I watched. "Then allow me to prove it to you." Lifting the egg up above his head, he told me, "Sentimentality tows grief in its wake, and instability follows close behind. You came here for justice; well, let me show you why that doesn't exist anymore."

And he let the egg fall.

I lunged forward, only to be yanked back by Jupiter so roughly that my neck ached from whiplash. The crack that resounded through the room was sickening, and the egg split open on the linoleum, yolk seeping through the eggshell like blood trickling through pierced skin.

_You bastard, _I wanted to say, but forced myself to keep my lips clamped shut to hold back the disgust and denial.

Mars, with a smile that glittered with malice, jumped off the table and swept an arm across it, knocking all of the eggs off of the polished surface. Each of them split against the cold flooring, yolk spotted with blood spilling across the tiles. Blood of innocent pokemon; pokemon that couldn't even defend themselves…

"Mars." Charon uttered the name in a way that was half scolding, half appalled.

"Shut up!" she snarled at him in reply, her teeth still showing in that sickening smile. "You're the newest commander out of all of us- Cyrus is the only one that's allowed to boss me around!"

"Bitch," I whispered. The word was squeezed out of a throat that was tight with nausea. "You fucking bitch."

Dark satisfaction lit Cyrus's eyes. "Emotions bring no good to this world," he said, as if proving a point. "Emotion, weakness, corruption, irrationality… it's all the same. It all controls people like you."

"Your _lack _of emotion controls you!" I shot back, struggling in Jupiter's grip. "You're the reason this world is corrupted!"

A spasm of fury twisted his face like a tornado would twist through a still summer's night. "You-," he began, and then seemed to choke on the word, confusion clouding his eyes.

"Cyrus?" asked Mars anxiously, the sickening red smile dropping off of her face.

The dark vapours of Kaito encircled Cyrus's head, and as my pokemon's eyes and mouth materialised the pokedex's entry floated through my mind: _Born from gases, anyone would faint if engulfed by its gaseous body, which contains poison. _

A second after the thought formed, Cyrus crumpled to the ground. Kaito hovered over his motionless form, his fanged mouth open in a laugh more of triumph than actual mirth.

"_Now _you show up," I muttered, but gave him a fleeting smile of thanks before jerking my elbow back to stab Jupiter in the stomach. A low groan emanated from her, and I ripped myself from her hands, whirled around and put all of my energy into a kick. It was sloppy, but was enough to empty her lungs of breath and force her to drop to her knees.

"Charon!" Mars was shrieking. "Do something!"

Panicked, the old man limped towards the door, the vial shaking violently in his hand. I cut him off. "What's in the vial?" I demanded.

Sweat glistened at his brow. "Move aside."

"Tell me what's in the vial!" My voice rose to a shout.

"No-"

My hand slapped it out of his, and it fell to the floor, staining the yolk with yet more blood. A startled gasp rattled out from Charon's mouth, and he pinched his wrinkled lips together, his face white and shining with perspiration.

"You idiot!" Mars's shrilling rose to a crescendo. "You fucking idiot! Now we have to recollect the blood of mespirit!"

"Mespirit?" I said sharply. "As in the lake spirit?"

Charon shoved me aside with a bony elbow and hobbled out the door, his coattails streaming behind him.

"Come back here!" screamed Mars, spittle flying from her mouth. She was stamping her boot-clad feet, her eyes wild. "You can't abandon us, you lowlife! You need us! Without us you are _nothing!" _

"Shut up." My voice had never been so savage.

She whipped around to face me. "And _you. _You uppity brat-"

Crossing the room in a stride brimming with barely-leashed violence, my fist smashed into the side of her face, and my knuckles smarted with the aftermath as she stumbled back a step. "That was for Mytho, you bitch," I snarled.

Her top lip curled in a sneer, an angry red mark blossoming on her cheek. "You'll pay for that."

Before she could say anything more Kaito enveloped her in his vapours, and no matter how much she clawed at him his incorporeal body sustained no damage. After five seconds she fell, landing on the remains of the eggs that she had broken.

"Good work, Kaito," I said.

He grinned, his ghostly laughter rebounding off the walls. Shaking my still-stinging hand, I allowed myself to give him a tired smile in return, my stomach still churning from what Cyrus and Mars had done.

But we had forgotten about Jupiter.

"Skuntank!" I heard her rasp. Turning around, I found that she had pushed herself to her feet, and had called out a bulky poison type. Pointing a finger at me, she ordered, "Skuntank, Fury Swipes!"

Staggering back, I threw up and arm to protect myself, and cried out as I felt long claws rake my skin. The warm wetness of my blood seeped through my torn sleeve, and I lowered my arm, clapping a hand to it to try and stop the bleeding.

"That's what you get for messing with us," she growled.

"Kaito," I said, scrambling to remember what moves he knew, "Curse!"

His vapours morphed into the shape of a skull, and the Curse showed itself in form of a bone that whistled through the air and towards the skuntank.

"Use Mimic," commanded Jupiter.

My eyes flicked to the skuntank, but it remained motionless. Bewilderment caused me to frown; if she wasn't talking to her skuntank, then who was she talking to?

Then my eyes followed her gaze, and I realised.

The clefairy.

One of the gagged clefairy had lifted a now-glowing finger, and waggled it once.

Kaito, unaware to all of this, was still laughing as the bone swivelled around and, under control of the Mimic, sped towards him at the velocity that a bullet would be shot from a gun at.

And he was still laughing as the bone impaled him between the eyes.

Horror numbed me to the marrow.

Kaito's laughter stopped all at once, leaving silence behind to ring in my ears. His eyes showed white all around, his pupils pinpoints of shock.

As if from behind a veil I heard Jupiter spit out a jeer, return her skuntank and flee the room, the sound of her boots clomping down the stairs lost on me. I could only stand there with my eyes fixed unblinkingly on my pokemon.

"Kaito?" I croaked.

With the bone still lodged in his unsubstantial body, he turned to give me a smile.

Relief poured through my veins. "Oh, Kaito, thank Arceus-"

It was then that his smile caved in on itself, and the bone shattered, gleaming ethereal white before vanishing entirely. It left a gaping hole between his eyes; a hole that I could see straight through.

"Kaito?" My voice was rough with strain.

His pupils were still contracted, and, shivering, he floated nearer to me. I forced myself to take a step towards him, my hands outstretched.

He hovered with a tired expression, and I cupped my hands underneath him, his vapours cold to the touch. "Kaito," I said, feeling as if my life had just lapped itself. _You're going to be okay, _I wanted- no, _needed- _to say. _I'll get you to a pokecenter. I won't let you end up like Mytho. _But I had to settle for, "Please hang on."

With tremendous effort, he grinned at me. His vapours seemed to be growing colder by the second, the frigidness seeping in through my fingertips and spreading throughout my body. Then he shook his head, slowly and surely, and gave a brittle chuckle.

My fear kindled anger.

"You're a ghost," I told him. "You can't… you can't _die."_

He was turning more translucent as time went by, and the look he gave me made me realise that being in denial wouldn't help the situation any. Then his trembling mouth parted, and he choked out something unintelligible.

I leaned in closer, straining to catch the words. "What?"

He repeated the words, and my eyes filled at the realisation that they were song lyrics. _Don't mourn, please, _they translated to. _We'll soon see each other again. Hey, now, it's alright; I'm certain that you're not mad. It's just a little unreal, that's all. _

Outside, where the rest of the world was turning, a band was starting up for the festival. The beginnings of their music drowned out my voice, but I knew that Kaito could read my lips.

"'My hands are stained with blood'," I managed to say, reciting the counterpart to the lyrics. "'They will never return to normal, but I won't mourn. Hey, but, far more than remembering and weeping, I'm afraid that I won't be able to remember at all. I won't wander, I won't regret'…"

"'But I'm just a little afraid'," finished Kaito.

From outside the window one note swelled into a thousand, and those thousand exploded into a million. They bounced off rooftops, ricocheted off the ground and rose higher and higher into the sky.

And as the last of the music faded out, so did Kaito.

I clutched the frigidness of his vapours until, with a shimmer that was akin to tears falling, there was nothing left to hang on to. My fingers met, and the coldness receded.

I was left alone in the room with two unconscious commanders at my feet and the blood of the innocent surrounding me, with nothing but my own stupidity to blame.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

_A/ N:_

_R. I. P Kaito: lv. 17-17_

_I'm so sorry. You were with us for way too short of a time._

_But despite the pain your death caused me, nothing could ever beat the agony that our team's next loss inflicted._


	14. Bonus 2

**Disclaimer: **Olih: I'm glad ; w ; Pikachu Princess: Well, we'll see… Jack: I'm not sure, either. And thanks! Actually, your characters did inspire that; and yes, more fighting scenes will be included in the future. Arther: We'll see. And I agree; Cyrus looks forty-something, not in his twenties! Animatedrose: Thanks for adding this to your faves! Do review when you have the time! PokePlatinum: Fair enough, I really didn't think of any of that ^.^' I'll attempt to redeem myself next chapter.

The song for this chapter is (if you want to get into the mood of the story): 'Flowers For A Ghost' by Thriving Ivory.

This chapter is from Kaito's POV, in memory of him. Flashbacks are italicised.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

**Bonus: Kaito **

_~And I said,_

_Who will bring me flowers when it's over?_

_And who will bring me comfort when it's cold?_

_And who will I belong to when the day just won't give in, _

_And who will tell me how it ends, and how it all begins?~_

The thing I miss most about being human is being able to touch things. I miss being able to do things like press down on a piano key, and tuck myself in at night.

_And hugging, _I think as I feel the bone in my body leach energy from me. _I'd kill to be able to hug right now._

Because Odile's standing in front of me, and I'd be a jerk if I didn't want to stop her tears.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

_Hesitation wars with resolve, and the chair wobbles as I step onto it. The handmade noose- the one I had to look up how to make- hangs from the pipe, and I force myself to stick my neck through the opening, the blood from my already slit wrists staining my jeans._

_But you know, I really didn't think it would hurt. _

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

I'm such an idiot. To die again, after I've been given a second chance at life, is just plain stupid on my part.

"Kaito," Odile whispers. She's the type of girl I wouldn't have looked twice at back when I was human, but now, as a pokemon, I can see her through eyes untainted by attraction or superficiality: I can see a girl that's trying to act strong and failing miserably, a girl that's the kind of pretty that shows mostly in her eyes. "Please hang on."

I shake my head, and can't resist giving her a smile: I already know what happens after death, and that's enough to keep me from being sad or scared.

Still, I can't get over what an idiot I am.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

_I thought suicide would be painless. An easy way out of not getting into college and being shot down by every music company out there. _

_But my wrists throb with every beat of my heart, and when I step forward and fall down, my neck aches and my feet can't touch the ground and I'm having doubts about this and I wonder if I can maybe call this off for now._

_Because you know, I really didn't think it would hurt. _

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"You're a ghost," Odile cries, and even though her hands are clenched in what looks like anger the trembling of her lips gives her away. "You can't… you can't _die."_

Seeing her like this reminds me of when I first met her; frustrated, red-cheeked and hurt, still getting over her fight with her boyfriend. And it reminds me of what she nicknamed me.

My tongue feels leaden in my mouth, but I force it to frame lyrics: lyrics of _Gallows Bell, _a song I know she'll recognize.

"What?" she sniffles, leaning in closer.

"'Don't mourn, please'," I quote, smiling at how corny I'm being. "'We'll soon see each other again. Hey, now, it's alright; I'm certain that you're not mad. It's just a little unreal, that's all'."

Tears gush down her cheeks, and, somewhere faraway, a band starts up. Or maybe it's my imagination.

Odile gives a watery little sigh, and recites back at me, "'My hands are stained with blood. They will never return to normal, but I won't mourn. Hey, now, far more than remembering and weeping, I'm afraid that I won't be able to remember at all. I won't wander, I won't regret'…"

"'But I'm just a little afraid'," I finish, talking not about me, but her.

Her teeth sink into her lip to keep it from shaking, and I can tell she doesn't understand what I mean. Still, I wrap my vapours around her fingers in the only form of comfort I can give as the band's music swells up and up, lifting me up with it.

And as I ride on the crescendo, I open my mouth to say one last thing, even though I know she can't hear it.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

_And you know, I didn't expect it to hurt._

_But when it was over, I floated. _

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"Don't be sad about this, please.

"Who'd want to live forever, anyway?"

_~Never say goodbye~_

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

_A/ N: I thought I'd jot down some song lyrics/ meanings to show how they tie in with the story. And ugh, I meant to do this two chapters ago ; A ; _

_Chapter One: Break Away, by Kelly Clarkson. I think this song describes perfectly Odile and Damion's desire to leave town, and why._

'_Grew up in a small town  
>'And when the rain would fall down<br>'I'd just stare out my window  
>'Dreaming of what could be<br>'And if I'd end up happy  
>'I would pray (I would pray)'<em>

_'Trying hard to reach out_  
><em>'But when I tried to speak out<em>  
><em>'Felt like no one could hear me<em>  
><em>'Wanted to belong here<em>  
><em>'But something felt so wrong here<em>  
><em>'So I prayed I could break away'<em>

_'I'll spread my wings and I'll learn how to fly_  
><em>'I'll do what it takes til' I touch the sky<em>  
><em>'And I'll make a wish<em>  
><em>'Take a chance<em>  
><em>'Make a change<em>  
><em>'And break away<em>  
><em>'Out of the darkness and into the sun<em>  
><em>'But I won't forget all the ones that I love<em>  
><em>'I'll take a risk<em>  
><em>'Take a chance<em>  
><em>'Make a change<em>  
><em>'And break away'- I imagine these three verses to be told from Odile's POV. Is self-explanatory.<em>

'_Wanna feel the warm breeze  
>'Sleep under a palm tree<br>'Feel the rush of the ocean  
>'Get onboard a fast train<br>'Travel on a jet plane, far away (I will)  
>'And break away'<em>

_'Buildings with a hundred floors_  
><em>'Swinging around revolving doors<em>  
><em>'Maybe I don't know where they'll take me but<em>  
><em>'Gotta keep moving on, moving on<em>  
><em>'Fly away, break away'<em>

_'I'll spread my wings_  
><em>'And I'll learn how to fly<em>  
><em>'Though it's not easy to tell you goodbye<em>  
><em>'I gotta take a risk<em>  
><em>'Take a chance<em>  
><em>'Make a change<em>  
><em>'And break away'<em>  
><em>'Out of the darkness and into the sun<em>  
><em>'But I won't forget the place I come from<em>  
><em>'I gotta take a risk<em>  
><em>'Take a chance<em>  
><em>'Make a change<em>  
><em>'And break away, break away, break away'- I picture these last verses to be from Damion's POV. Is self-explanatory.<em>

_Chapter Two: Make It Without You, by Andrew Belle. This song illustrates Odile's thoughts about leaving, and is from Odile's POV. Has some foreshadowing in it._

'_This is the starting of my greatest fear'- Odile's journey is about to begin, and she's never been out on her own before, so she's feeling frightened._

'_I'm all packed up, getting out of here_

'_But then you call me and tell me not to go,_

'_That I'm the one that put the rock n' roll_

'_In your life'- Talking about how she's set on leaving, but how she realises just how much she'll miss her friends when she calls to say goodbye. _

'_This is the starting of a brand new day_

'_I never liked this town much anyway'- Self-explanatory._

'_I know that somewhere there's a north-bound train'- Title of the story, anyone?_

'_This is the starting of my fall from grace_

'_My self-esteem, it's seen better days'- She knows that she's not cut out for travelling, as proven by her father's words. _

'_Oh I'll make it without you_

'_And though my body's lying here_

'_It's my mouth that must be lying now'- Foreshadowing. _

_Chapter Three: Under The Tracks, by Coldplay. A light-hearted song told from Damion's POV, yet again with some foreshadowing sprinkled throughout. _

'_You are free, you are free, it's a long way home_

'_And what have we done,_

'_Was it wrong, was it wrong, was it me?_

'_Can't you see it's a long way home?'- Speaking of running away, and how, in part of his mind, he's wondering if it's wrong of him to take Odile with him, even though he knows that she longs for the freedom just as much as he does. _

'_There is a snake, he will awake, and he will get you off the floor'- Foreshadowing of Asher._

'_I won't make your dreams come true, it's on you_

'_To change your lonely ways to make it through'- Talking about Odile. _

_Chapter Four: First Day of My Life, by Bright Eyes. It's a song detailing Odile and Damion's past together, from Damion's POV. No explanation needed._

'_Yours is the first face that I saw  
>'I think I was blind before I met you<br>'Now I don't know where I am  
>'I don't know where I've been<br>'But I know where I want to go'_

'_Remember the time you drove all night  
>'Just to meet me in the morning?<br>'And I thought it was strange, you said everything changed  
>'You felt as if you'd just woke up<br>'And you said, "This is the first day of my life  
>'"I'm glad I didn't die before I met you<br>'"But now I don't care, I could go anywhere with you  
>'"And I'd probably be happy"'<em>

'_So if you want to be with me  
>'With these things there's no telling<br>'We just have to wait and see  
>'But I'd rather be working for a paycheck<br>'Than waiting to win the lottery  
>'Besides, maybe this time is different<br>'I mean, I really think you like me' _

_Chapter Five: Human, by The Killers. This song is Odile moving on and leaving her regrets about running away behind, and is from her point of view. Is up to interpretation._

'_And sometimes I get nervous_

'_When I see an open door_

'_Close your eyes, clear your heart_

'_Cut the cord'_

'_Will your system be alright_

'_When you dream of home tonight?_

'_There is no message we're receiving,_

'_Let me know, is your heart still beating?'_

_Chapter Six: 21 Guns, by Green Day. This revolves around a few different characters._

'_Do you know what's worth fighting for?_

'_When it's not worth dying for?_

'_Does it take your breath away_

'_And you feel yourself suffocating?'- Odile's thoughts about how maybe her mother doesn't understand her desire to find out what she wants to do in life, despite the fact that she herself did the same when she was younger._

'_Does the pain weigh out the pride?_

'_And you look for a place to hide?_

'_Did someone break your heart inside?_

'_You're in ruins'- About Odile, and how she's constantly hurting throughout her journey._

'_One, 21 guns_

'_Lay down your guns, give up the fight'- Talking about how Odile is easily broken._

'_One, 21 guns_

'_Throw up your arms into the sky, you and I'- From Damion's POV, and how he is much more resilient._

'_Your faith walks on broken glass_

'_And the hangover doesn't pass_

'_Nothing's ever built to last_

'_You're in ruins'- About Asher._

'_When it's time to live and let die_

'_And you can't get another try_

'_Something inside this heart has died_

'_You're in ruins'- Foreshadowing. _

_Chapter Seven: Life Is A Highway, by Rascal Flatts. Is from Damion's point of view, and is about the joys of adventuring. Is self-explanatory._

'_Life's like a road that you travel on_

'_When there's one day here and the next day gone_

'_Sometimes you bend, sometimes you stand_

'_Sometimes you turn your back to the wind'_

'_Life is a highway_

'_I wanna ride it all night long'_

'_Through all these cities and all these towns_

'_It's in my blood and it's all around_

'_I love you now like I loved you then_

'_This is the road and these are the hands_

'_From Celadon City to those Goldenrod nights_

'_And good old Mt. Chimney to Sunyshore's lights'- Hahaha, couldn't resist. _

_Chapter Eight/ Bonus: Again (Acoustic), by Faber Drive. This song is about Mytho, and how, despite how snarky he was, he realised what a bitter and angry pokemon he was. Is self-explanatory._

'_Underneath my skin is it just anger, just frustration?  
>'Underneath my skin is it decisions or these feelings?<br>'It always hurt my mind (it always hurt my mind)  
>'It always killed my pride inside.<br>'It always wastes my time  
>'Again, again...'<em>

'_Again I bleed, again I shake.  
>'Again I fall, again I break.<br>'Wasted, hated.  
>'Again, again...'<em>

'_Again I burn, take it all.  
>'Inside my head, I hate the world,<br>'Because I don't know (don't know)  
>'I let go<br>'Again, again...'_

_Chapter Nine: Circle You, Circle You, by the Vocaloids. I chose this song because of it's spookiness, and I like how it describes gastly and other ghost pokemon. Is self-explanatory._

'_An old building out of the sun's reach,_

'_Hallways with decay starting to leach,_

'_Behind the door in a dark back room_

'_Were children remembered by what, by whom?_

'_They had been waiting for you to visit them for a long time:_

'_We're so happy! We're so happy! Please play with us for a time.'_

'_Orphanage deep in the forest greens,_

'_So no one would find the dark machines_

'_Made from a little child's brain._

'_Immortality built of children's pain,_

'_The children in the orphan place_

'_Circled the teacher with a smiling face,_

'_Singing a child's play song, 'Circle you, circle you!'_

_Chapter Ten: Down, by Jason Walker (ft. Molly Reed). This song is about Asher and Odile, from their POVs._

'_I don't know where I'm at_

'_I'm standing at the back and I'm tired of waiting_

'_Waiting here in line, hoping that I'll find_

'_What I've been chasing'- About Odile, and how Gardenia's words make her wonder whether or not she'll ever find out what she can do in life._

'_I shot for the sky_

'_I'm stuck on the ground_

'_So why do I try_

'_I know I'm gonna fall down_

'_I thought I could fly_

'_So why did I drown_

'_I never know why_

'_It's coming down, down, down'- From both of their point of views, about themselves. _

'_I can't find another way around_

'_And I don't want to hear that sound_

'_Of losing what I never found'- From both of their POVs, and about each/ either of them. _

_Chapter Eleven/ Bonus: Flowers For A Ghost, by Thriving Ivory. Since my theory is that all ghost pokemon were once human, this song is very fitting for Kaito. Is up to interpretation, but I can tell you this: it's mostly about his human life._

'_You disappear with all your good intentions'_

'_She took a plane to somewhere out in space_

'_To start a new life and maybe change the world_

'_See I never meant for you to have to crawl_

'_No I never meant to let you go at all'_

'_And I said,_

'_Who will bring me flowers when it's over?_

'_And who will bring me comfort when it's cold?_

'_And who will I belong to when the day just won't give in, _

'_And who will tell me how it ends, and how it all begins?'_

'_Don't ever say goodbye'_


	15. Chapter Twelve

**Disclaimer: **Tomoyo: Thanks for the fave, and for reviewing! Thanks for your critique, and yes- Harry Potter fans unite! Alternate Lopunnu: You're so nice! And yes, Damion is based off of Barry, and Odile's costume is based off of Platinum's outfit. I absolutely love to your reviews; honestly, I just might have to PM you to answer them all, because I can't sum it all up here. Please keep reviewing! Olih: Thank you! : ) Pikachu Princess: Thanks so much! Meowth Star: *Hugs* Thank you! Arther: : )

**Fun Fact: Lopunnu is the only one that realised that Cynthia knew Odile's name, despite Odile never having told her it. You're a sharp one, girl. **

**Important Notice:**** Since I've reached a hundred reviews thanks to all of you lovely, lovely people, that means I'll be doing a Questions and Answers for this fic! There is no amount to the number of questions/ comments you can submit. The characters you are allowed to direct the comments/ questions to are as follows: Odile; Damion; Asher; Odile's team (including boxed pokemon, such as Cullen); and Li, Asher's absol. ****Questions/ comments won't be used if question is answered in fic/ is directed towards a character that has since died, and not all questions/comments will be used. ****Enjoy!**

The song for this chapter is (if you want to get into the mood of the story): 'Heartbeat' by The Fray.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

**Chapter Twelve: Heartbeat **

"I can't believe that happened to you," Damion said for the twelfth time, shaking his head.

I sighed. After exiting out the back door of the Galactic building, I had found him in his room in the pokecenter, and had told him everything. We were sitting on the edge of the bed together, with him bandaging up the arm Jupiter's pokemon had clawed. I had stuffed the ninetales mask into my bag, and my pokemon lay at our feet.

"I'm going to go to the police," he declared as he finished with the gauze, springing to his feet. "I'll tell them about the commanders, Looker, and Asher- I don't care if he can be arrested here or not. I'll be right back, and I'm fining you one million if you move a muscle while I'm gone-"

"No!" I snagged his hand. "Don't go yet. Please."

He blinked, and the zeal in his expression dissolved. "Okay." He sat back down. "What do you need?"

I looked down at his hand in mine, and tightened my grip. "I just… Can you help me puzzle this out? Because there are a lot of things that don't make sense to me."

"Sure. What doesn't make sense?"

"Well…" I lied down on the bedspread, pulling him with me so that we lay side by side. "First off, when looking back on it, I don't understand why the receptionist didn't order me to take off my mask. Wouldn't I seem awfully suspicious while wearing one?"

"There's a festival going on," Damion pointed out, rolling his head to the side to look at me. "They've probably seen tons of people wearing them."

"And, after Jupiter tossed me into the room, they weren't overly violent towards me. I mean, they didn't gag me like they did with the pokemon, and no one took out their pokemon until Kaito showed up… Also, why would Cyrus explain all of that to me? Does he go on that tirade for everyone?"

Damion frowned. "I really don't know about that. Maybe… well, didn't you say that that Cyrus guy was one of the ones we saw at Lake Verity? Maybe he recognized you or something."

"I was wearing the mask, though," I reminded him.

"True. Still, that's the only thing I can think of." His forehead smoothed out, and he shrugged. "In any case, you're safe now."

"I guess." My exhale was heavy. "Why did Jupiter flee, anyways? She could have killed me; I was completely vulnerable-"

The pucker returned to the space between his brows. "Don't talk like that."

"It's true though, Damion." I turned my head to frown at him.

His light eyes searched mine. "I don't know," he said eventually. "I guess she could have been scared of Cyrus waking up or something. But know what I think?"

"What?"

He leaned forward so that we were nose-to-nose, and smiled. "I think that you shouldn't focus on the past anymore, and focus on the future instead."

As my lashes flicked against his I realised just how close we were, and had to swallow around the sudden lump in my throat. "I know. I know I should. I promised myself that I would when I left home, but I haven't yet."

"No time like the present," he told me, and sat up, tugging me into an upright position also. "Look, I'm going to go to the police. Are you going to be okay?"

A flash of heat and confusion rushed to my face, and I removed my hand from his before he could register the change in temperature. "I'll be fine," I said. "Thank you, Damion."

His expression softened, and he ruffled my hair gently before turning and hastening out the door. It slammed shut behind him, and as his footsteps faded away so did my blush, and I shook off the confusion. The room hummed with the quiet his departure supplied.

Taking a deep breath, I allowed my eyes to travel down to my pokemon. All stared up back up at me, their expressions inscrutable: Hatter, Winry, Tesserae, Hunny, and Odette. My friends. My team. My responsibility.

"I'm sorry," I told them, climbing down from the bed to sit in front of them on the floor. "I'm sorry about being the reason that Mytho died, and I'm sorry that I haven't spoken to you properly since then. I'm sorry that I pushed you into that gym battle without preparing you first. I'm sorry that I left you behind when I ran from the gym. I'm sorry that I didn't come get you before I went into the Galactic building. And I'm sorry that I let Kaito die." I dragged a hand through my hair, and willed myself not to cry. "But being sorry can't reverse anything, and it can't bring either of them back. So I'm not going to be sad anymore." I offered them a wobbly smile. "And I'm not going to be angry. I'm going to be determined."

One of my hands lay flat against the floor, and Hatter placed his flipper overtop of it. Winry laid her paw down as well, with Hunny following suit. Tesserae rested her hoof on top of theirs, and, with sorrow moistening her eyes, Odette's wing topped the pile.

"Thank you," I whispered. "I'm going to be a better trainer to you from now on. We're going to train, and we're going… we're going to put the past to rest. I promise."

"Don't make promises you can't keep," warned a voice from the doorway. My chin jerked up, and I found myself staring at Gardenia, who had opened the door and was standing there with her angular frame outlined in fluorescent lighting. "I heard about your stunt in the Team Galactic HQ. What were you thinking?"

"I took the wrong advice," I said, her appearance reopening fresh wounds. "Instead of getting sad, I got angry. And that turned out to be the worst thing I could have done."

"Why?" Even at a distance, her gaze was sharp enough to cut through glass.

"Because I let that anger control me," I told her, feeling a tear trace a line down my cheek for others to follow. "And my friend died because of it."

She studied me for a moment longer, the weight of her stare crushing. "Change of heart comes slow," she said. "You may think your resolve is unbreakable, but your fragile self-esteem is enough to cause it to splinter once a challenge is failed. You can't give up. You can't run away."

"I know that." Despite my best efforts, more tears spilled.

"I know you do." Her answer surprised me. "But knowing is worthless if you don't act on that knowledge. I overheard your promises, and you're right: being sorry doesn't change anything. But acting responsible in the wake of grief and then slipping back into an old routine is something that happens for many trainers."

"I wasn't set on completing the eight-badge run before," I fired back, my hands quivering. "I wanted to prove to my parents and Damion that I could do it, but I wasn't truly set on it. If it turned out that I was great at contests, I would have gone that path instead and proved myself to them that way." I tried to inhale, but the air stuck in my throat. "But now I want to. I want to do the eight-badge run."

"Why?" Her voice was hard.

"Because I want to prove to myself that I can do it," I said, and found that I couldn't meet her eyes.

Silence fell, heavy as an axe. Bracing myself for another onslaught of cutting truths, I ducked my head, and kept my eyes trained on the floor.

That was when I felt a small piece of metal nail me in the forehead, and Gardenia's badge rebounded off my face and landed in my lap, glittering up at me like a hopeful green eye.

I lifted my head to stare at her, speechless. She stared back at me implacably.

"I'm giving you a chance to fulfil your promises," she told me sternly. "If I find out that you aren't using this charity to your advantage then I will revoke the badge."

I looked down at the badge, then up again. My eyes were round with shock. "Thank you."

"You have a lot to learn, Odile," she sighed in response. "Although Roark and I have been merciful to you, know that this is the last favour that will be done to you by a gym leader. So grow up. Become stronger. And, above all, learn from your mistakes." With that she backed up into the hallway, and shut the door.

Wiping at my cheeks, I gazed long and hard at the badge before getting to my feet. Withdrawing my trainer card, I attached the badge to it before reaffirming that my first badge gleamed there beside it, and stowed it away.

Then I took out my journal.

The shape and texture of it was familiar under the pads of my fingers. Flipping it open, my hands skimmed indents in the pages where I had pressed too hard with the pen; my fingers danced over concrete poems and free-verse, scribbles of half-remembered dreams marring the whiteness of the page.

And then, digging my nails into the top of the page, I ripped it out.

My pokemon watched with curious eyes as it fluttered to the floor, but I paid them no mind: I was too busy relishing the certainty that had filled me, and one by one I tore out the pages, and allowed them to blanket the floor.

_Hope bubbles within me, _read one of my haikus.

_Giving me wings, lifting me, _

_Until I can fly_

_(away) _

Opening the window of the room, I set it flying as if it were a bird pokemon being released from a cage, and then gathered the rest of the pages up and did the same with them. Going back to my journal, I flipped through the remaining pages that I needed to take out, and then stopped dead.

Red Sharpie stained the last page like blood; Red Sharpie, just like the one Asher had let me borrow back when we were in the Old Chateau. Blinking down at it, I decided it couldn't possibly have been him, until I remembered that he had borrowed my journal while I had stormed off.

_Ironic _

_Tongue-bitten _

_Secrets_

_Murder_

_You_

_For_

_Animal_

_Usury_

_Like_

_This, _it read. Underneath it was scrawled, _I'll bet you anything the stone prince would know what I mean. _

Feeling my brows furrow in confusion, I reread it. Feeling realisation slacken my jaw, I shook my head, even more muddled than I had been before.

The sound of the door banging open yanked me from my thoughts. "They said they'd 'look into it'," I heard Damion rage, the quotations in his voice audible. "Can you believe it? If I was a cop I'd go and-" He stopped, and I turned around to face him, my journal still clenched in my hands. "What's going on? I saw Gardenia leave-"

"She gave me the badge," I supplied, snapping the book shut with trembling hands. If I couldn't make sense of Asher's poem, then Damion wouldn't be able to, either. "She's giving me a chance to prove myself."

"That's great," he encouraged, his face clearing. "Does that mean we can go to the next town together?"

I nodded.

He beamed, his frustration dissipating. "That's good, because I've already gotten us a ride!"

"Really?" I slid my journal back into my bag.

"Yep; this guy was so happy that his clefairy came back to him that he was giving a few out for free-"

"Wait, wait. Damion," I sighed. "You've been ripped off so many times, and I've toldyou again and again not to be so naïve-"

"Relax, Odile. It's an old model," he assured me.

I eyed him mistrustfully. "What did this guy give you, exactly?"

After giving me time to recall my pokemon and put my shoes and bag on, he grabbed my hand and hauled me out into the streets, whistling a low tune under his breath as we went.

But I couldn't return his smile. My thoughts were still circulating around Asher's acrostic.

It had spelled out, _It's my fault. _

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"Has anyone ever told you," Damion said meekly from behind me, "that you're cute when you're murderously angry?"

"I refuse," I told him flatly, whirling to face him. "There is no way I'm going on that… that _thing." _

"Odile, I promise it's safe-"

"No!" I jabbed a finger at his chest. "It looks like it'll fall apart at any second!"

He looked at me with pleading eyes. "The only way to Hearthome is down Cycling Road-"

"We'll go around!"

"None of our pokemon know Cut-"

"HMs are useless," I declared, throwing my hands up. "A ridiculously spindly tree is in your path? Save the environment; step around it!"

"And what if I need Strength?" he asked, humouring me. "What do I do instead?"

"Your skull's thick enough," I said musingly. "You could probably move it with a Headbutt."

He glanced longingly at the half-deflated tires of the bike, and the loose gears. "We have jackets on," he muttered. "It's not like we'll get road rash."

I groaned. "Are you honestly going to make me do this?"

"Just because it's an old model-"

"Old model my _ass. _That thing is scrap metal."

He was shifting his weight to contain his excitement, his hands balled up into fists of hopefulness. "I could tow you behind me on the lid of a garbage can-"

"Stop! Just… just stop." I resisted the urge to cover my ears. "I'll ride on your stupid death machine. But if we die, I just want you to know that I'm going to hunt you down and kill you until you die to death."

He grinned. "Where's the trust, O?"

"Back at the hotel."

"You know, 'Death Machine' would probably fit on the side of the bike," he considered as he began walking the bike to the gate of Cycling Road. "Stencil the words, fill it in with gray spraypaint…maybe a skull or two…"

I elbowed him. "We don't even have helmets."

He tapped my nose, and then his head. "Thick skull, remember?"

I rolled my eyes in reply, and we stopped at the beginning of Cycling Road. The road itself followed the near-vertical slope of the hill that led to the next route, and I swallowed hard.

"It'll be fine," Damion told me, straddling the seat. "Hop on."

I eyed the worn leather. "Are you sure there's enough room?"

"You're tiny. It'll work."

"Fine," I huffed, getting on with difficulty. Cautiously, I wrapped my arms around his abdomen, and tried to calm my nerves. It was like waiting for the cart of a rollercoaster to plunge down the first dip of the rails.

There was a moment of suspense as he pedalled us forward, the bike moaning a complaint about our combined weight. Then we started going downhill.

If I screamed, I didn't remember afterwards: all I could remember was clutching onto Damion for dear life as we plummeted down the near-vertical slope of Cycling Road, the wind- cold enough to be suited for winter instead of summer- stinging my eyes and causing my hair to lash around me.

Damion let out great whoops of delight as we rode, the gears of the bike rattling underneath us. "What did I tell you, Odile?" he shouted gleefully.

"Shut up and focus on driving!" I answered, my arms tightening around him.

His body shook as he laughed, and he steered us deftly down the road, avoiding cracks and other bikers. Despite my fear, it was oddly freeing to have Eterna disappear behind me and the tires of the bike scarcely touch the ground. The sky and trees blurred together into one hapless colour, but I trained my eyes onto what lay ahead.

I just hoped that we didn't die before we made it there.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"I can't believe we made it," I gasped, scrambling off of the bike as quickly as possible before collapsing to the grass of Route 209.

Damion rolled his eyes, placing the bike gently on the ground before plopping down beside me. "I told you that it would be okay, didn't I?"

"It's not like I believed you," I scoffed. "What with your Death Machine and all."

"Whatever." He grinned at me. "You were totally smiling."

One of my eyebrows hitched. "How would you know?"

"I could feel it," he said with an air of importance.

"Sure, sure. Were your Odile senses tingling?"

"Majorly," he assured me. "Why did you think my steering was so wobbly? I could have been doing wheelies if it wasn't for you."

I managed to keep a straight face for a few seconds before dissolving into laughter, some of the pressure on my chest lifting. Asher's cryptic message could wait until later. "Well, you got us here, wheelies or not," I said. "That's something."

"You bet it is." The heatless rays of the sun refracted off of his teeth. "Can you believe it? We're already in Hearthome!"

"We're not in Hearthome yet," I amended.

"But we will be." His skin seemed to have a golden sheen to it, his enthusiasm radiant. "Are you going to give contests a shot, like you said you would?"

"Of course." Despite the fact that I was set on battling, I had to admit that contests sounded like a lot more fun. "Are you going to come watch?"

"Naturally."

I smiled at him. "I'm glad. Of course, none of my pokemon are really suited for contests; Tesserae, maybe, but I think she'd just end up setting the curtains on fire-"

"Odile, I hate to interrupt you, but-"

"-Winry would eat the opposition; Odette's not up for anything like that now, I don't think; Hunny's more of a battler-"

"Odile-"

"What?"

Coughing a laugh, he pointed, and I followed his finger to where a roselia was plainly eavesdropping. Its verdant green eyes examined us curiously, but as soon as it noticed us looking it lifted its chin in a haughty pose to mask its humiliation at being discovered.

"Contest pokemon?" he queried, still pointing.

I considered the healthy colour of its petals, and the way its gaze flicked towards us every second or so, only to dart away once it realised that we were still watching. "Contest pokemon," I agreed, and then fished out Odette's capsule and an unused pokeball. "Odette, come on out!"

In a flash of light, Odette materialised. She swayed like a persim stalk on her one foot, and her matte eyes focused on the roselia.

I had to fish out my pokedex to check what moves Odette had, and vowed to know her moves by heart once I started properly training. "Try a Wing Attack, Odette."

She flexed her stiff wings obediently, and the whirlwind she whipped up was feeble at best. It wavered towards the roselia, who spotted it and flung itself out of the way with flair.

"It looks like it's showing off," Damion remarked.

"Then we'll show off, too," I answered. "Odette, return. Let Tesserae handle this one."

I attempted to return her to her pokeball, but Odette dodged the light and hobbled towards the roselia. For the first time since Mytho's death, her movements had conviction, and that in itself was enough to keep me from forcing her to retreat.

Flapping her wings again, two miniature tornados were created, and they wobbled towards the roselia from either side. Jumping up with a nimbleness that rivalled the shortness of its legs, the roselia twirled in the air, dodging the whirlwinds effortlessly.

The roselia landed, and the black line of its mouth tilted up into a smirk. Its green eyes gleamed at Odette, and it murmured something in pokemon-speak that I failed to understand. The effect it had on her, though, was instantaneous: a shiver ran through her, and she flapped her wings wildly, not in an attack but a gesture of frustration that was uncharacteristic of her.

I stared in amazement. "I can't believe she's reacting to something. She's been so stoic ever since the Windworks."

Damion just continued to smile as the roselia said something else, and Odette clacked her beak angrily, still fluttering her wings. Her unpolished eyes had something akin to a gleam in them. "I think that you should definitely catch that roselia," he said. "Your pokemon definitely likes him."

"'Him'? How do you know it's male?"

"It's just a feeling I have." His eyes danced with humor. "Now c'mon, catch him so we can get going."

Pushing myself to my feet, I tossed a pokeball at the roselia, which hit its face. The roselia was sucked into the capsule, and gave only the slightest twitch before it clicked shut. The very next second, however, it released itself, and shook one of its buds at me.

I smiled apologetically. "Sorry; I didn't mean to hurt you. I'm Odile." Whipping out my pokedex, I listened as the automatic voice chirped, "_Roselia: The Thorn Pokemon. The more healthy the roselia, the more pleasant its flowers' aroma. This roselia is a lv. 19 male."_ Snapping the dex shut, I examined his fine-bred features and conceited air before saying, "Welcome to the team, Usui. I see you've already met Odette."

With a wink at Odette, Usui nodded a greeting. A flush stained the white feathers of her cheeks, and she looked away.

I turned back to Damion to tell him that he had been right about the roselia's gender, but stopped at his stricken expression. "What's wrong?" I asked.

A high, familiar voice answered me before he could. "Odile!"

I swung around to find myself staring at my friend Olivia, who was running towards me with an enormous smile on her face. That, however, was not what caused my blood to chill.

My mother stood at the gates of Hearthome, an unreadable expression on her face.

And behind her, with his hands in his pockets, was my father.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

_A/ N: _

_Pokemon obtained in this chapter:_

_Roselia: nickname, Usui_

_Met on Route 208, lv. 19._

_Docile nature, hates to lose._

_Happily eats anything._

_Ability: Natural Cure._

_Heartbeat, by The Fray: Is from Damion's POV, about Odile. No explanation needed._

'_We're on an open bed truck on the highway  
>Rain is coming down and we're on the run.<br>Think I can feel the breath in your body.  
>We gotta keep on running til' we see the sun.'<em>

_'Oh you gotta fire and it's burnin' in the rain._  
><em>Thought that it went out, but it's burnin' just the same.<em>  
><em>And you don't look back, not for anything.<em>  
><em>'Cause love someone, love them all the same.<em>  
><em>If you love someone, love them all the same.'<em>

_'Oh I feel your heartbeat._  
><em>And oh, you're comin' around, comin' around, comin' around<em>  
><em>If you can love somebody, love them all the same.<em>  
><em>You gotta love somebody, love them all the same.<em>  
><em>I'm Singing, Oh, I'm Feeling Your Heartbeat.'<em>

_'I'm tryin' to put it all back together._  
><em>I've got a story and I'm tryin' to tell it right.<em>  
><em>I've got the kerosene and the desire.<em>  
><em>I'm trying to start a flame in the heart of the night.'<em>

_'Oh you gotta fire and it's burnin' in the rain.  
>Thought that it went out, but it's burnin' just the same.<br>And you don't look back, not for anything.  
>'Cause you love someone, you love them all the same.<br>If you love someone, you love them all the same.'_

_'Oh I feel your heartbeat._  
><em>And oh, you're comin' around, comin' around, comin' around<em>  
><em>If you can love somebody, love them all the same.<em>  
><em>You gotta love somebody, love them all the same.<em>  
><em>I'm singing, Oh, I feel your heartbeat.'<em>

_'I know the memories rushing into mind._  
><em>I want to kiss your scars tonight.<em>  
><em>I'm laying here,<em>  
><em>'Cause you've gotta try, you've gotta let me in, let me in.'<em>

_'Oh I feel your heartbeat._  
><em>And oh, you're comin' around, comin' around, comin' around<em>  
><em>You love somebody, you gotta, you gotta love somebody<em>  
><em>You gotta, I'm singing, oh, I feel your heartbeat,<em>  
><em>All your heartbeat, yeah, I said,<em>  
><em>All your heartbeat, yeah,<em>  
><em>All your heartbeat.'<em>


	16. Chapter Thirteen

**Disclaimer: **Olih: Whoops, I forgot that! *Quickly fixes it* Thanks for reminding me! Lopunnu: Hahaha, thank you for your review; it literally made me laugh out loud! Star: Hahaha, yeah. Thank you! Fromidam: Lol, thank you ; ) Kaichou wa Maid-Sama is too cute, so I couldn't pass it up. You totally should! Nuzlockes are tons of fun. Nightmare: Thanks for adding this to your faves : ) Please review if you have the time. Jack: Thanks! Platinum: Thank you so much! Your opinion means so much to me : ) And that's so flattering; I still am fourteen, and that… that was so nice : ' ) Arther: Your shipping names made little hearts float above my head; I'm totally using them AND your questions in my Q and As! Also, please do send me a link! I'd be so incredibly flattered if you drew my characters!

**Important Notice:**** Since I've reached a hundred reviews thanks to all of you lovely, lovely people, that means I'll be doing a Questions and Answers for this fic! There is no amount to the number of questions/ comments you can submit. The characters you are allowed to direct the comments/ questions to are as follows: Odile; Damion; Asher; Odile's team (including boxed pokemon, such as Cullen); and Li, Asher's absol. Questions/ comments won't be used if question is answered in fic/ is directed towards a character that has since died, and not all questions/comments will be used.****Enjoy!**

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The song for this chapter is (if you want to get into the mood of the story): 'We Don't Eat' by James Vincent McMorrow.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

**Chapter Thirteen: We Don't Eat**

For one wild moment I pictured myself standing the bike back up and pedalling off into the distance, but Olivia was upon me before the image had fully formed. She crushed me to her, my arms trapped between us. "I've missed you so much!" she squealed, her familiar voice a comfort.

"Me, too," I said reflexively, but felt guilt wash through me at the realisation that I hadn't thought of my friends or family at all in the last few days. As she pulled back to scan me with clear brown eyes, all of the homesickness I had lacked crashed onto me all at once, and I found my throat clogging at the sight of her freckles and sandy hair. "Me, too," I repeated, meaning it.

Her smile was a balm to my shame, and she swung around to face Damion, who was chafing his arm with one hand. "Get over here," she said to him, beckoning him with a toss of her head.

His eyes flitted warily over my parents before he loped over, his height causing him to tower over the two of us. "Group hug," she declared, and yanked us both in for a much-needed squeeze.

We remained that way until I remembered that we had an audience. Peeling myself from the embrace, I turned to recall Usui and Odette- making sure that my parents could see what I was doing- and then clipped the pokeballs to my necklace, the weight of them fortifying. Then I turned to face my parents.

My fear must have been stamped onto my face, because Livia looped her arm through mine. "Thanks," I said, my voice sounding weak to my own ears.

Her eyes gleamed. "What, did you think I would let you do this alone?"

Damion cleared his throat with exaggeration.

She made a face at him. Indicating my dad with her pointer finger, she warned, "Clay's going to kick your ass if you go over there. So don't."

Damion scoffed, but glanced over at my dad anyways. Then, catching my father's eye, he flushed and quickly looked away. "Okay, fine," he relented, albeit a little sulkily. "I'll sit this one out and go give the Death Machine another whirl. I'll catch up with you guys later."

"Death Machine?" Livia repeated, her near-transparent brows lifting.

Ignoring her, I flashed him a thumbs-up. "Good luck with those wheelies."

He mirrored my gesture. "And good luck with those parents." Then his gaze darkened, and his hands dropped. "If they take you home… call me, okay?"

My heart felt like a stone in my chest. "Why? It's not like you could stop them."

His smile was hopeful. "Jailbreak?"

I shook my head before waving him off. "Bye, Damion."

After a brief deliberation, he waved and retreated. Livia and I watched as he stood the bike up and mounted it, his legs working overtime to get the rusty gears to move.

"Seriously, what's the Death Machine?" asked Livia as we watched him go.

"That is." I bobbed my head in the direction of the bike.

Her face was crimped with lines of confusion. "Why do you call it that?"

As if on cue, a wild pokemon darted in front of Damion, causing him to brake. The bike screeched a complaint, and the sudden stop nearly caused him to pitch over the handlebars.

"_That's _why," I deadpanned, and allowed myself one last smile before turning around. Taking a deep breath, I untangled my arm from Livia's to squeeze her larger hand in mine, the metal of her rings pressing against my fingers.

"Chill out," she told me. "Deep breaths. No passing out allowed."

I did as she said, and released the air from my lungs in a slow drawl. Then I took the first of many small, slow steps towards my parents.

Each detail of them was familiar, but not quite the same as before. Had my dad's hair always been quite so gray? Were the after-effects of smoking always so evident on my mother's face? I couldn't remember, and that, along with guilt, weighed my feet down as I made my way towards them.

I stopped a few steps away from my mother, and I distantly noted Livia giving my hand a quick squeeze before going to stand behind me.

Time caught. I didn't know who reached first, but one minute the feeling of empty air was replaced with entangled limbs. We hugged each other hard, but, even as I gripped the back of her shirt, my eyes slid to my dad.

He wore his usual black T-shirt and green vest ensemble, with his hands stuffed deep into his pockets. His hulking frame blocked out almost the entire gate, and his eyes, a shade or two lighter than mine, had never looked graver.

My mom's grip slackened, and I pushed gently off of her. Stepping around her, I walked on trembling legs to my father, my hands balled up into fists and my chin lifted to look up at him. Our last meeting filled my mind: the shouting, the tears, and the way I had snuck out after with nothing but an overly dramatic letter to mark my departure.

And then he hugged me.

There was no yelling, no outburst of anger. Just a tired, bone-crunching hug, which was the same thing he did every time we had a fight. Breathing in the familiar scent of home, I returned the embrace, and shut my eyes against the impending tears.

"I'm sorry," he said gruffly.

I pulled back. "No, I-"

"Don't." His hoarse response drowned out my words. _"I'm _sorry, Odile. I shouldn't have said any of that."

It was the same apology, and the same act of forgiveness. "It's okay," I said, even though we both knew it wasn't.

Mom came to join us, with Livia trailing behind her. Reaching out, my mom smoothed a hand over the top of my head, and I saw Livia give me an encouraging smile from behind her back.

"C'mon, honey," my mom said gently. "We have a lot of things to talk about."

Taking Livia's hand once again, I nodded, and felt unshed tears continue to burn in my eyes as I remembered Damion's parting words.

No matter what happened, I wouldn't let them take me home.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

The café we settled on matched the rest of Hearthome, what with its lacy attire and quaint furnishing. After ordering drinks, Livia pointedly excused herself, and left me alone in the booth with my parents sitting across from me.

The awkwardness in the air was stifling, and Mom's nail clicked against the tabletop as we each waited for someone else to break the silence.

"How has your journey been, Odile?" Dad asked, finally giving in.

I squeezed my fingers together under the table. "Good."

His gaze drilled into me. "I don't want any wishy-washy replies."

Looking down, I tried to calm the trembling of my hands. "Good," I repeated. "Tough, but good. I have two badges already," I said, eager for them to know.

I had the pleasure of seeing their shocked expressions. "Really?"

Nodding, I withdrew my trainer card, and showed them the two badges clipped to it.

My dad exhaled all the air in his lungs into the space between us. "Odile-"

"There have been hard times, but there have been good times, too." The words spilled from my mouth, and I tripped over them in my haste to convince my parents. "Damion and I met Prof. Rowan on the first night- can you believe it?- and he gave us dexes and starter pokemon."

Mom stopped drumming her nails long enough to shoot me a reprimanding glance. "I hope you thanked him."

"I did, don't worry."

My dad began again, "That's good, Odile, but… aren't you coming home now?"

I settled back as if I could lean away from his words. "No."

A muscle in his jaw flickered. "Why not?"

"Because I'm having fun." The reply burned on the way out, but it was a lie I had to tell. If I told them about the pokemon I had lost and the people I had faced, there was no way that they would allow me to continue. "Not all the time, but the times when I am are worth it. Don't you even care that I got all the way here?" My fingers ached from how tightly I pressed them together. "Aren't you proud?"

"I am proud," he said tightly, but, like always, I didn't hear much sincerity in the words. "I just want you home, that's all."

"I'll come home," I told him. "Just not yet."

He threw a frustrated look at my mom, who wouldn't meet his eyes. "We miss you," she said. "Your brother does, too. It's too quiet without you around."

"Where is Ethan, anyway?" I asked.

"He's staying with Cecile." There was a pause as our drinks were delivered, but none of us touched our cups. After a few beats, my mom resumed speaking. "I'm so proud that you've gotten this far, honey. Really, I am. But don't you miss home?"

With a wave of surprise, I realised that I hadn't felt homesick since the first night. "Of course I do," I said, not having the heart to say otherwise.

Her lips twisted into a sympathetic expression. "This is your last summer before you head off to college next year," she reminded me. "We want you to be with us."

Guilt sank into my midriff like a knife. "I know, but I still don't know what I want to go to college for. This will help me decide."

Dad seemed skeptical. "You don't know that for sure."

"Yes, I do." My voice was taking on an edge of desperation. "I've already learned from this; especially from Gardenia. Besides, would you rather me lock myself up in my room all in summer like I usually do, or be out here experiencing new things?"

My mom took a sip of her coffee, leaving my dad to answer. "I guess I'd rather you be out here. Still… I worry about you, Odile," he told me, the timbre of his voice lowering into a pitch that was surprisingly heartfelt. "I don't like the thought of you being out here alone."

"I'm not alone. I have my pokemon." A sudden thought came to me. "Do you want to meet my starter?"

An unreadable look passed between my parents. "Sure."

Unclipping Hatter's pokeball from my necklace, I pressed my thumb against the central button, and watched as he was released. He manifested beside our table, his sleek feathers absorbing the light and my tuque on its usual place atop his head. His globular blue eyes took in the three of us with curiosity, and he clacked his beak in greeting.

"Hatter," I said, "these are my parents."

Hatter beamed, but his eyes showed that he detected the strain between us. Reaching out, I rubbed his head.

"He's cute," my mom volunteered, a smile worming its way onto her face. "You know, your brother has always liked the piplup line."

"Oh." I blinked. "That reminds me. Since I want to repay Prof. Rowan, I've been catching the first pokemon I meet on every route to fill up the dex… but there are a few that aren't travelling with me, and I feel badly for boxing them. I'm sure Ethan would love one."

My dad frowned, and I remembered his dislike for pets, since he was always the one that ended up taking care of them. "What pokemon?"

"I have a geodude, a bidoof, and a zubat," I explained. "Brofist, Bieber, and Cullen."

Mom laughed at my nicknames. "He likes bidoofs," she mused. "What do you think, Clay?"

One shoulder of his lifted and fell. "I guess. If it starts gnawing on the deck, though, I'm putting it down."

"What about the other two?" I asked.

"There's a guy at work that wants a geodude," my dad remembered. "Zubat aren't popular, though, so I think you'd be better off releasing that one."

I agreed, and then returned Hatter to his capsule. Lifting my hands, I guided the cup to my lips, and downed a few sips of hot chocolate.

A great exhalation of air left my dad's mouth. "I hope you've been keeping warm," he muttered. "It's been cold out."

A wan smile found my lips, but I didn't take the bait. "So, are you taking me home?"

My parents glanced at each other, and an unspoken conversation thrummed between them. "No," my dad said finally, unwillingly. He tore his eyes from my mother to face me. "You're a big girl now. If you want to travel, that's your choice."

Relief pulsed through me. "Thank you."

Their eyes flicked to each other yet again. "There's another thing we'd like to discuss," my mom said slowly, sounding amused.

"Have you been travelling with Damion this whole time?" my dad asked, cutting to the chase.

"Not the whole time," I answered, puzzled. "Why?"

At that moment, Livia sauntered up. "Sorry," she said breezily. "The lineup with _so _long. You wouldn't believe how long old ladies hog the stalls."

We all stared, unimpressed by her obvious lie.

"Anyways," she continued, "I happened to overhear, and I can take things from here."

My dad's frown deepened, but Mom laughed. "I agree."

Livia wore a conspiratorial grin as she leaned over to drag me out of the booth. "We're going to go take a walk," she announced.

I eyed her warily. "Why?" My head swivelled around to face my parents. "What is this about?"

They didn't have time to reply, and I was led away, my unfinished hot chocolate still steaming on the tabletop.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Our shoes clicked on the cobblestone streets of Hearthome as we wandered, the sun bouncing coldly off of the maroon tiles. I breathed in the chill air, and pulled out my cell.

"Who're you texting?" Livia asked, still grinning.

"Damion. I need to tell him that I'm still allowed to travel."

She chuckled. "No need. I already did."

I shot her a questioning look, but returned my phone to my bag nonetheless.

"I didn't _actually _go to the bathroom," she explained, as if it should be obvious. "I was around the corner listening in to you guys, and was texting Damion the details."

"You two are ridiculous," I said, but smiled.

Her eyes were aglow with mischief. "Speaking of Damion, you have to spill." She gave a giddy hop. "What's been going on?"

I stiffened, and yanked my hand back to wrap my arms around myself. "What are you talking about?"

"_Hello?" _she carolled, drawing the word out to obscene lengths. "You two ran away together."

"To start our pokemon journey," I reminded her.

"_Together,"_ she stressed. "And you two are on Romeo and Juliet terms now, since your dad hates him."

"My dad hates him?"

"Oh, awkward." She rubbed the back of her neck. "Well, think about it… you ran away with a boy in the middle of the night. If you were a dad, wouldn't that seem suspicious?"

"But it's _Damion," _I said, aghast.

"Yeah, Odile, it's _Damion." _She sounded as if she was trying to supress laughter. "The boy next door. I mean, of course people are going to start talking."

I groaned. "What are people saying?"

She giggled. "That you eloped; that you got pregnant-"

"Pregnant?" I felt my face contort. "Who made up that one?"

She tapped a finger against her chin. "Ryan, I think."

I scowled. "Nice."

Her grin morphed into a smirk. "Seriously, though, what's been going on between you guys?"

"Seriously,Livia, nothing's been going on." I threw my hands into the air in exasperation, even as I remembered snippets of confusion I had felt towards him.

"You're being overly defensive," she pointed out. "And you're blushing."

"Because this is ridiculous!"

She gave a gusty sigh. "You always lie to yourself about things like this," she told me. "I don't think you've noticed, but you do."

"I'm not lying."

She wagged a knowing finger in my face. "I'm not buying it." Closing one eye, she seemed to ponder. "Back at the café," she recalled, "you didn't sound like you missed Twinleaf at all. Why not?"

"Because I have my team, and Damion." The answer was instantaneous.

She opened her mouth to press, but seemed to think better of it. "I give up," she moaned. "You're so in denial, I don't think anything I say will make you realise." Then an overly dramatic expression spread across her face, and she clasped her hands together. "Unless you met someone else?"

"No!" Memories of Lucas's kindness and Asher's obscurity swirled in my mind, but I pushed them away.

She picked up on my hesitance like a houndoom would on a blood trail. "Liar! Was he hot?"

"No!"

"Was he nice?"

"Enough with the romantic talk already; you aren't going to get anywhere."

"So you admit that there is a 'somewhere'?" she demanded.

Groaning, I strode off. She kept pace with me easily. "So, who do you like better: Damion or New Guy?"

"Knock it off, Livia."

"Was Damion jealous?"

"Shut up."

She pouted. "I bet Damion will tell me. I'll ask him right now." Whipping out her phone, she began dialling.

"Don't!" My hand flashed out and snagged the phone.

Her eyes gleamed wickedly. "So there _is _someone."

Snapping her cell shut, I walked into the nearest building, which happened to be the contest hall. I was no match for her long strides. "He was a bastard," I caved, not meeting her eyes. "Nothing to get excited about."

She squealed. "Odile, you wouldn't know hot if it took its shirt off right in front of you. _I'll _be the judge of what's to get excited about."

Any shreds of amusement I had felt drained away. "Honestly, Liv, he was horrible. A pokemon abuser."

The smile dropped off her face. "Oh."

"Yeah," I said bleakly. "Pretty much."

We stood in the middle of the contest hall, chandeliers and red velvet carpets adorning the room. Giving her a reassuring smile, I attempted to change the subject. "So, what's been happening back at T-"

'_Hai thar.'_

The words dissolved like cotton candy in my mouth. "Did you say something?"

Livia's brow furrowed. "No, why?"

The sluggish, lisp-ridden voice came again. _'Hallo.' _

I twisted around, looking for the source of the voice. "Did you really not hear that?" I asked Livia.

She gazed at me skeptically. "What are you talking about?"

"There's this voice…" Still searching, I came up empty, and frowned.

'_Hallo, girlfriend.'_

Livia's face smoothed out, and she beamed. "Awwww," she crooned. "Odile, look. It's an eevee!"

I followed her gaze, and found an eevee pawing at my shoe. It was unusually small, with drooping ears and heavy-lidded brown eyes. Seeing me looking, it gave a slow smile. _'Hallooo thar,' _repeated the distinctly male voice.

Staring, I shook my head once. "Call me crazy, but I swear to Arceus this eevee's talking to me."

"Oh, you're not crazy." I looked up to find a middle-aged woman approaching me, her eyes half-hidden behind the thick lenses she wore. "My name's Mary, and I'm part of an adoption agency for abused and mentally disabled pokemon. This eevee's parents were both espeon, so he inherited some traits typically known to psychic pokemon."

Bending down, I scratched his floppy ears. "So why is he up for adoption?"

"He's not all there," she elaborated. "And is the runt of the litter. If he isn't adopted, he'll be put down."

Empathy stabbed at my heart. "How much is the adoption fee?"

Mary clapped her hands together. "Oh, no fee! We don't work for profit. All I need to see is your trainer card for verification."

Straightening, I flashed her my card.

She scanned it, and then nodded. "Looks legit." Then she smiled widely. "Thank you very much for your charity!" And with that, she hastened away.

"And you give _me_ a hard time about getting scammed," said a voice from behind me. "All it takes is one shady lady wagging a sob story in your face and you're sold."

I whipped my head around to find Damion standing there, smiling. The orange stripes of his jacket were blinding under the lights, and his nose was slightly red from the cold. "How'd you find us?" I asked, picking up the eevee. He gave a dopey purr in response.

"Livia texted me," he said.

I frowned confusedly down at the phone I had confiscated, and then at her. She flipped her palms up, and gave a too-innocent shrug. "I have my ways," she hummed in reply to my unspoken question.

Shaking my head, I turned back to Damion. "So, Livia told you the good news?"

"Yep." The brightness of his smile went up a notch. "And you know what other good news there is?"

"What?"

"I found a great training spot while on the Death Machine," he told me, his eyes alight with optimism. "And we're going to go train there."

"Now?" I questioned.

"Yes, now." He stepped back, and motioned for us to follow. "C'mon."

When I didn't move right away, Livia came to take her phone back and loop an arm through mine. Damion slunk around to the other side and stole my other arm, while my eevee clambered up my shoulder to wrap himself around my neck like a boa.

"A little help, Magnus?" I asked the pokemon.

He thought it over slowly, his eyes blinking at different times. _'Nuh-uh, girl.' _

"Thanks a lot," I muttered, but allowed my two friends to haul me out of the contest hall nonetheless.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

The place Damion spoke of turned out to be a secluded area on the outskirts of Hearthome. Livia sat on a knee-high wall, her legs swinging above the bricks that had fallen off, and watched as Damion attempted to train me and my team.

"The first thing you need to know is your pokemon's greatest asset and their greatest weakness," he was saying in his most scholarly tone of voice, both hands locked behind his back as he walked to and fro in front of me. His team- his grotle, staravia, ponyta, and buizel- were fanned out behind him, as were my pokemon. "If you have a pokemon that has great Special Attack, for example, don't teach it physical moves."

"I know," I said. "That's elementary stuff."

"Alright. You know about STAB, right? How if a move-"

"-is the same type as the pokemon using it, it becomes more powerful," I finished for him. "Get on with it, Mr. Teacher."

He flicked my nose with his finger. "Don't get cheeky with me."

"Don't get patronizing with me," I answered, feeling my nose crinkle at his touch. "You _know _that I know the basics already. I need tips on strategy."

He shook his head, curls bouncing. "No, you don't. You can figure out strategy on your own; plus, I suck at strategy, so I'm not the one to ask about that." His eyes roved over me. "Since you say that you know all about stats, how about listing your team's?"

My teeth sank into the inside of my cheek as I struggled to recall. "Hatter has good Special Attack, but low Speed; Winry's Attack is above-average; Hunny's Speed is his best asset; Odette should focus on Special Attack, because her wings hinder her Speed and Attack; and Tesserae has the best Speed on the team by far. I don't know Usui or Magnus's stats yet, though."

He smiled. "Not bad. Do you know their move sets?"

"No, but I'll work on memorizing them." Seeing him fall so easily into the role of leader, I remembered Gardenia's words to him: _'I can see much of your father in you, as well as your uncle.' _It was a reminder of why he was so much more suited for this than I was, and why Cecile was so sad to see him leave.

Being the son of Palmer the Tower Tycoon and the nephew of Volkner, Sinnoh's toughest gym leader, came with natural skill, but it also came with a lot of expectation. Maybe that was why he was trying so hard to sound as knowledgeable as possible.

"Hey, Odile." His concerned voice brought me back to reality. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I assured him. "Sorry."

He grimaced at me in sympathy. "Nervous about the next gym?"

_I am now that you mentioned it, _I thought, and nodded.

Liv hopped off her perch to join us. "Is the next leader Fantina?"

"Yeah," said Damion. "The ghost-type specialist."

"I've heard about her," she told us. "She's engaged to Juan from Hoenn, and is the ex-champion's -Wallace's- cousin."

Damion made a curious noise in the back of his throat. "I didn't know that Wallace isn't the champion anymore."

She gave a graceless shrug of her shoulders. "Well, he wasn't any match for the stone prince."

My mouth went dry. "What did you just say?" I whispered.

Livia glanced at me. "Huh? I said that Wallace isn't Hoenn's champ anymore."

"No, after that," I insisted, my palms struck with a sudden clamminess. "Something about a 'stone prince'?"

She stared at me, a knot forming between her brows. "The stone prince is Steven Stone's nickname," she said, sounding puzzled. "Why? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"It's… it's nothing," I lied, even as I relayed Asher's message in my mind. _I'll bet you anything that the stone prince would know what I mean. _"The nerves are screwing with me, that's all."

Damion chuckled. "Don't worry about it. Fantina takes on challengers in contests, so you'll be fantastic."

"She does?" Pushing thoughts of Asher to the side, I allowed a bubble of hope to form in my chest.

He nodded.

A grin stretched my lips. "So that means that you're going to have to partake in a contest."

His smile faltered. "Oh. I didn't think of that."

Livia laughed, and then put both hands on her hips. "I think it's time for me to tutor the two of you in the art of being contest-ready," she announced.

"How would you know how to tutor us?" I asked.

"I went to camp a few years ago," she said airily.

"You went to cheerleading camp," Damion argued.

She pursed her lips. "Whatever. Close enough."

Damion rolled his eyes. "I'm already contest ready, so there's no point."

She clucked her tongue in disagreement. "Contesters walk delicately, like a deerling in the woods," she said. "Not like a tyranitar on a rampage."

"She has a point there," I teased.

"Also, you need to know how to look presentable," she continued. "Damion, I'm sure we can find a place where you can rent a suit."

He made a face. "Oh Arceus, anything but a suit."

I giggled. "We'll have to brush out your hair, too."

He groaned, and held onto his head. "Out of bounds," he warned. "You know how much it hurts to brush out my hair."

"I can see your mouth moving," taunted Livia, "but I can't hear anything, Goldie Locks."

We all laughed at that.

Afterwards, we trained for both battles and contests in a sequence that Livia said deserved a musical montage, only stopping long enough to phone my parents and say that we'd be back by dinnertime.

And, for the first time in a long while, I had fun.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

By the time we returned, the lights of the city were busy drowning out the moon and stars of the night sky. The temperature had plummeted, if that was even possible, and the cold leached feeling from my bare skin.

Once our training was finished, Livia had accompanied us while we went to the contest hall and scheduled our battles with Fantina for tomorrow afternoon. Damion had then proceeded to flee before she could force him to rent a suit, and she left me to meet up with my parents alone as she gave chase.

Returning Magnus to his new pokeball, I stepped inside the motel room that my parents had directed me to, and shut the door behind me. The sound of water spraying from a showerhead greeted me, and I dropped my bag to the floor, and neared one of the perfectly-folded beds.

Dad emerged from the small kitchen area. "You're back," he noted.

I dipped my head in a nod, and seated myself on the edge of the mattress.

"How did training go?" he asked, eyeing me as if I was a stranger.

"It went well." All my enthusiasm seemed to have seeped out of me, and the best I could manage was a reply that was as flavourless as water. "I'm challenging Fantina tomorrow at one. Are you going to come watch?"

Instead of answering, he stared at me starkly, as if trying to pierce through my eyes and delve into the inner workings of my brain. I returned the stare, and tried to do the same.

Silence encompassed us, but not the silence of two people that understood each other too well for words: this was a silence of two people that didn't understand each other, and never would.

As if reading my mind, he said, "Odile, I know that we don't see eye to eye. I don't think we ever will. But I am proud of you, and I didn't mean to hurt you. And even though I don't like that you're travelling with Damion, I'm not going to force you to go home. Not after what happened with your mother. She was so torn up after her parents forced her back- I don't want to see you like that." He gave a stiff, self-deprecating smile. "I've already hurt you too much without adding that to the pile."

I wanted to assure him that that wasn't the case, but I couldn't find the words. Instead, I settled for smiling back at him.

He cleared his throat. "Your mother's in the shower," he said, "but I don't think she'd mind if I gave you this now." Walking over to the bed opposite me, he lifted a sleek green garment that I hadn't noticed before, and held it in front of me. "This was hers," he explained, laying it across my lap. "And I can't wait to see you in it tomorrow."

"Thanks, Dad. I love you." Stretching out my hand, I curled my spindly fingers around his large ones.

"I'm proud of you," was his response.

My grip tightened, and, for once, I let myself believe him.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

_A/ N: Pokemon obtained in this chapter:_

_Eevee: Nickname, Magnus_

_Met in Hearthome City, lv. 20_

_Hardy nature, highly curious_

_Happily eats anything_

_Ability: Adaptability _

_We Don't Eat, by James Vincent McMorrow: Is from Odile's POV._

'_If this is redemption, why do I bother at all?  
>There's nothing to mention, and nothing has changed'- <em>About how she still has doubts that she can change enough to be a worthy trainer.

'_Still I'd rather be working at something, than praying for the rain  
>So I wander on, until someone else is saved'- <em>She would rather be working at something tangible than doing intangible things such as writing poetry, and she'll keep trying, even if only her pokemon benefit from it.

'_I moved to the coast, under a mountain  
>Swam in the ocean, slept on my own<br>At dawn I would watch the sun cut ribbons through the bay  
>I'd remember all the things my mother wrote'- <em>Thinking about how she has travelled on her own so far, and the parallels she's drawing to her mother.

'_Two thousand years, I've been in that water  
>Two thousand years, sunk like a stone<br>Desperately reaching for nets  
>That the fishermen have thrown<br>Trying to find, a little bit of hope'- _She's always had low self-esteem, and is finally rising up, with the help of Damion and Livia, to find hope.

'_Me, I was holding all of my secrets soft and hid  
>Pages were folded, then there was nothing at all'- <em>About how she's hiding things from her parents, and also how she let go of her poetry.

'_Am I an honest man and true?  
>Have I been good to you at all?'- <em>Feeling guilty about how she hasn't missed her life back home.

'_We'd just be running down  
>The same old lines, the same old stories of<br>Breathless trains and, worn down glories'- _*Cough* Title of story reference *Cough*


	17. Chapter Fourteen

**Disclaimer: **Arch: Awwww, thanks for the awesomesauce compliment : ) Also, you're theory is close… but not quite close enough : P Ebaz: Ooooh, maybe I'm a ghost writer ; ) Also, your theory is just as close as Arch's is… but still, it's not quite right! Also, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SUBMITTING QUESTIONS! Arther: Yep, I have seven : ) And also, I think you should totally update your nuzlocke one day! I love nuzlocke comics! (Oh, and for the drawing… could you maybe do them in their contest attire, which I'll explain this chapter? But any drawing at all would be great : 3) Lunary: Hi, Lopunnu! Again, I can never answer all of your wonderful comments, but I'm really glad that you like Olivia; she's fun to write. Olih: STEVEN X ODILE : O And I'm glad you liked Magnus : 3 Also, thanks SO MUCH FOR THE QUESTION! Oh, and everyone, go check out Olihmajor on Deviant Art, because she has an awesome story and just as awesome drawings on there. Platinum: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SUBMITTING QUESTIONS! Also, I am so looking forward to reading your fic : ) It's going to be sensational.

**Important Notice:**** Since I've reached a hundred reviews thanks to all of you lovely, lovely people, that means I'll be doing a Questions and Answers for this fic! There is no amount to the number of questions/ comments you can submit. The characters you are allowed to direct the comments/ questions to are as follows: Odile; Damion; Asher; Odile's team (including boxed pokemon, such as Cullen); me, the authoress; and Li, Asher's absol. Questions/ comments won't be used if question is answered in fic/ is directed towards a character that has since died. Enjoy!**

**You can submit your questions/comments anytime now. So please do : ) EVEN IF YOU HAVE ALREADY ASKED QUESTIONS, YOU MAY STILL DO SO IF YOU THINK OF MORE. ALSO, YOU MAY ALSO DIRECT QUESTIONS TOWARDS ME, THE AUTHORESS.**

The song for this chapter is (if you want to get into the mood of the story): 'Dare You To Move' by Switchfoot.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

**Chapter Fourteen: Dare You To Move**

"You're lucky to have a flat chest," sighed Livia. "I couldn't wear that without a bra."

My face burned, but I refrained from moving as my mother continued to work on my hair. We were in one of the many vanity rooms in the contest hall, and my mom was attempting to style my hair while Livia did my makeup.

"Thanks," I muttered.

"You're welcome." Her smile glittered as brightly as her rings, and told me that she had completely missed my sarcasm.

"Where's D-"

A powder puff smacked me in the face. "Damion is all taken care of," she assured me as I spluttered. "You are going to be _wowed _when you see him. Seriously, that boy cleans up nice. But, until you do see him, there will be no talk of boys in the vanity room. Clear?"

"As crystal," I mumbled.

"Good." She seized an eyeliner pen. "Now open your eyes wider."

I sighed, but complied as she wielded various makeup brushes. The silence gave me too much time to think, and I wrung my hands in my lap, my legs trembling under the skirt of the dress.

"Calm down," Livia ordered. "You're going to sweat off your new face."

"Relax, honey," my mom agreed, her hands still coaxing my hair into a different style. "Just remember to smile." The words sent a smile sprawling across her own face, and she laughed softly. "I can't believe you're partaking in a contest," she admitted, her eyes glowing. "Even if it is technically a gym battle… it's still exciting."

Livia nodded, dabbing blush onto the hollows of my cheeks. "There's going to be live music and everything," she told me. "And I have my camera with me, so I'll be able to take plenty of p- quit gnawing on your lips, you'll ruin the lip stain."

"Sorry. Habit."

After a few more touch ups, the two deemed me presentable, and turned me around in the chair so that I could see my reflection. Standing, I surveyed myself in the floor-length mirror: how the thin line of eyeliner that framed by eyes, along with the heavy mascara, drew a stark contrast to my parchment-white skin; the blush that had been swept along my cheeks; and my lips, which had been painted to match the rosy shade. My mother had styled my hair into a swirl atop my head, and had attached studs to my earlobes that matched the colour of my dress.

The dress itself was Lolita in style, with a different shade for each layer: the first layer was a dark shade of viridian; the second, the colour of summer leaves; and the third, the underskirt that peeked out from below the first two, was a gentle lime. Thin, ruffled clasps snaked around my upper arms, leaving my shoulders bare, and simple green sandals adorned my feet.

"I would've liked to see you in heels," remarked Livia, coming to stand behind me, "but you make a pretty midget."

I whirled to retort, but was cut off by the flash of a camera. "Now's no time to lose your composure," Mom admonished as Livia giggled and took another snapshot. "You're on in five."

My stomach had twisted into knots, and I couldn't tell if I was nervous or excited. Lacing my fingers together, I took a deep breath and went over Damion's teachings in my head, attempting to ignore the fluttering sensation.

"Odile?"

I looked at Livia expectantly.

"No fear."

"What?"

"No fear," she repeated. Then she grinned at me. "Everyone needs an encouraging phrase, right? Something like 'Knock 'em dead' or 'Break a leg'. Well, yours can be 'No fear'. Because that's what you need to learn. You need to learn not to have fear."

I shifted my weight, and allowed a sigh to rattle out from between my teeth. "Are you sure? The last time I picked up an 'encouraging phrase', it didn't exactly work out."

She pinned me with an affronted look. "Of course I'm sure."

"Then thanks." Managing a smile, I allowed myself the benefit of doubt.

She made a face. "That smile's too queasy. You know what they say- smile twenty times more than you think you have to."

I forced the corners of my lips to edge higher, which earned a clap from Livia. "Better," she encouraged. "But out there, make it real. This is your first time performing; enjoy it!"

"I will." I nodded at her, and then at Usui, who was perched on the plush pink stool by the other vanity. "How are you, Usui?"

He gave a lazy smile before resuming his recline, twirling a polished black cane. My team surrounded him, chittering to each other in their own language and holding up accessories against him to test.

Livia snorted. "The pimp's fine; don't worry about him."

As we watched, Odette offered a flower to Usui. Her eyes didn't meet his, and as he stared at the flower clutched in her deformed talon I feared he would shun her; to my surprise, however, his smile widened, and he took it from her to attach it to one of the spikes on his head.

'_Oh girl, hold on,' _came Magnus's slow, lisp-afflicted drawl. _'Homo flower no go with pimp cane.'_

Usui gave a laugh at this, and, despite her miffed expression, Odette joined in.

"See?" Livia nudged me. "He's fine. Worry about yourself."

"I am, believe me." I nudged her back. "I'm scared, but I think I'll have fun with this."

She nodded. "You shouldn't be scared. Fantina doesn't allow competitors to fight to the death, since it's a public show; so all you need to worry about, really, is making your moves look good."

"_Ms. Rella to backstage right," _boomed the loudspeaker. _"I repeat, Ms. Rella to backstage right."_

I took a deep breath, and offered my arm to Usui. "It's show time," I said.

Giving a wink to our team, he jumped onto the crook of my arm, where he balanced. He had ditched the cane, but had kept the flower Odette had given him. His whole body had been doused in body glitter, and, when I glanced over to my pokemon, I saw Tesserae clutching a bag of it between her teeth and smiling with her eyes.

Mom squeezed my hand. "You look beautiful, honey."

"Thanks, Mom."

Liv grinned, and took my other hand. "We're rooting for you," she told me. "No fear, Odile."

I felt my lips curve. "No fear."

That was when I let go of their hands, and strode out to make my entrance.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

The applause from the last battle had died down, and I could glimpse the stage from behind the curtain I stood behind. The electronic scoreboard, showcasing each contestant, hung above the judge's balcony, with rows upon rows of contest fans sitting in the bleachers under them. A temporary stage, pressed against the wall, awaited the live band that would be playing.

"And now,"said the announcer into the microphone, who stood along with me backstage, "we introduce to you Odile Rella, who is making her contest debut along with her roselia, Usui!"

I was shoved unceremoniously out of the curtains by the announcer, but regained my footing as the spotlights shined down on me. Plastering a smile onto my face, I lifted both hands to wave, too nervous to be swept up in the excitement of things as I made my way to center stage.

Standing there, I soaked in the scene with eyes that I knew were round: the expectant eyes of the crowd; the knowledge that Damion, my parents, Livia and my team were cheering for me; and the fact that this was the first step in proving myself worthy of being a trainer.

Then I felt my smile become real, and, with a flick of my arm, sent Usui cartwheeling into the air for the preliminary round. "Usui, Leech Seed!"

Shoots were scattered from the flowers tipping his hands, and as they landed they grew into thin stalks that swayed in a vaguely circular formation. Twirling thrice in the air, he landed on the top of one with natural grace, and saluted the crowd as he wavered.

"Follow it up with a Magical Leaf!" I commanded.

Each of his flowers began to glow blue and red respectively, and, with a stylistic wave of his arms, he sent an array of shining leaves slicing through the air. They gleamed with the same colours as his still-glowing flowers, and I heard the crowd murmur in appreciation as they spun in a clockwise pattern around him.

As one leaf neared him, he leapt off of the stalk, and landed with a seamless pirouette upon it. The glitter on his body reflected the light as he rode the leaf, both of his flowers raised.

"Stun Spore!" I called.

Golden spores drifted from his flowers, glittering as they were caught in the current that the leaves had created. The space within the circle of the stalks was a whirlwind of sparkles and colour, and, after a few heartbeats, I clapped my hands together.

The stalks withered, the leaves stopped their glowing and the spores settled on the floor. One by one the leaves dropped, and Usui rode one down to the floor, where he hopped off to stand beside me.

Nodding to Usui, we both bowed. Applause rang in my ears as we straightened, both of us waving to the crowd as I tried to swallow the sudden anxiety that had bubbled up in my throat.

The easy part was over.

Now it was time for Fantina.

The rumble of the crowd became a roar as she emerged in a swirl of skirts from backstage left. Despite having fought contestants prior to me, not a hair was out of place: her violet tresses were dressed high, with the train of the gown she wore belling out from her waist. Her mismagius, shadowing its mistress with keen black eyes, looked as if it had been resting for a week beforehand.

My heart quickened its pace, thudding like a war drum against my ribcage. Fantina glided to the white rectangle of tape on the other side of the stage, which served as the gym leader's box, while I backtracked to the challenger's box on the opposite side. Usui jumped up to perch on my shoulder.

The curtains of the backstage twitched aside, and the announcer strode onstage, all bleached smiles and perfectly pressed clothing. The crowd roared in appreciation, and his microphone-enhanced voice carried easily over their tsunami of noise. "This will be the fifteenth match today; the battle between challenger Odile and leader Fantina," he decreed. "This will be a one-on-one battle, with no switching out. The match will end if either side faints, forfeits, or when the timer runs out. The judges will declare the winner in case of a tie." He angled his face towards Fantina. "Leader, ready?"

She lifted one gloved hand in response.

He turned towards me. "Challenger, ready?"

I raised my hand as well.

A digital clock appeared on the screen, counting down from one minute. "Match start!" boomed the announcer, and the audience cheered, their applause reverberating through my body.

"Mismagius." Fantina ordered her pokemon forward.

"Usui." He leapt from my shoulder, landing with a twist on the stage in front of me.

_Start off with a status-inducing move, _I remembered Damion telling me as the mismagius floated closer, its lightless eyes watchful.

"Usui, Stun Spore!" I ordered.

"Shadow Ball!" Fantina directed at the same time.

The jewel in the center of the ghost's body pulsed black, and Usui avoided a Shadow Ball by jumping up into the air. The black energy crackled at the place where he used to stand, and he shook out his flowers, which resulted in the spores gently drifting down.

"Teleport," commanded Fantina.

The mismagius dissolved, and then reformed a safe distance away from the spores. I gritted my teeth, shooting a look at the clock. Ten seconds had already slipped away.

"Usui, scatter Leech Seeds around the arena!" I shouted.

"Teleport," she repeated.

Usui, having landed, twirled with his arms outstretched. Leech Seeds were launched into the air, the shoots falling through empty space faster than his Stun Spores had. The mismagius vanished again, dodging the seeds by disappearing and solidifying at blinding speeds.

_Don't get frustrated or panicked; keep your head, _I chanted. _Keep your head, keep your calm, keep yourself composed. _

As if my chanting was some sort of prayer, as the mismagius materialised one of the seeds managed to latch on. I gave a whoop, and heard the crowd give a unified chuckle at my reaction as the seed sprouted and twined around the mismagius. The vines flashed red, and our opponent winced as some of its HP was sapped.

"Great job, Usui!" I cheered.

Fantina's mouth curled further. "Psywave," she commanded.

My exuberance dissolved, and alarm caused my arms to prickle. "Dodge!"

Usui threw himself to the side, but the streak of multi-coloured light struck his arm; his gasp of pain was audible, and the audience murmured appreciatively at the beauty of the attack.

"Magical Leaf!" I ordered.

"Counter with a Shadow Ball!"

Leaves shot out from Usui's flowers, but were met with a glob of dark energy: the two attacks collided in midair, neither winning out against the other. The force of the clash caused me to be blown a step or two backwards, and when the smoke cleared mismagius was nowhere to be seen.

"Brace yourself, Usui!" I called.

The only warning we had was a red pulse of the Leech Seeds as they drained yet another few points from our foe's health before the mismagius's body formed. It had already been readying its Shadow Ball attack, and as soon as it materialised it unleashed it, the glowing dark orb crashing down onto Usui's head.

My heart stopped.

And that was when I heard the music.

The chords of a violin rose in a song that was familiarly inspiring, dropping and rising like a bird pokemon riding turbulent winds as an equally familiar voice put lyrics to the notes. "'I dare you to move, I dare you to move; I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor. I dare you to move, I dare you to move like today never happened before: today never happened before.'"

Asher.

It was as if his eyes were paddles, the shock of seeing them electrocuting my heart into motion again. His gaze was drilling into me, the intensity in the words he sang trying to convey a message to me.

"'Welcome to the fallout.'" He lifted his chin at me, his hair gleaming copper. "'Welcome to resistance. The tension is here. Tension is here between who you are and who you could be, between how it is and how it should be.'"

As if in a dream, I heard Fantina command, "Finish it."

So I did.

Just as the mismagius teleported, I ordered Usui forward. He leapt onto the mismagius, clinging onto it as it formed and disappeared again, trying to shake him off.

"Stun Spore!" I shouted.

Inbetween flashes of the Leech Seed, I glimpsed the golden spores winking on the mismagius's body, and knew that Usui had succeeded.

"Magical Leaf!" I instructed.

At that close of a range, there was no way that the mismagius could evade: the shimmering leaves hit it dead-on, pelting it with only a few centimetres of distance between Usui's flowers and its body.

My heart sputtered out a frenetic beat as I watched the mismagius flicker in and out of focus. Then, with one last pulse of the Leech Seeds, the pokemon's lightless eyes closed, and it floated to the floor in a faint.

Usui stood on the stage, chest heaving, eyes half-closed in exhaustion. His body was battered, and Asher's song hit its last chorus as Usui swayed precariously. Blood dripped from a tiny cut above his right eye.

Then he straightened. He lifted both flowers up in a wave, and gave a smug grin to the audience and me.

The timer stopped, the clock on the screen showing that it was five seconds from hitting zero, and the audience bellowed with cheers and applause. "Leader Fantina's pokemon is unable to battle," declared the announcer, raising a hand in my direction. "Challenger Odile wins!"

This feeling of triumph was different than my first gym battle. Back then, it had been euphoria: it had been naïve, light, without substance.

This was different.

This was _real. _

Grinning, I went to hoist Usui up onto my shoulders before meeting Fantina at center stage. We nodded to each other, and our hands locked in a handshake. "Good match," I told her, meaning it.

"Indeed." Her eyes appraised me, their violet hue not cold like Gardenia's, but not as warm as Roark's, either. They were neutral as the announcer strode over to us, holding out a case filled with glittering badges to Fantina. She plucked one from the velvet and placed it in my hand.

"Thank you," I told her.

She just smiled.

Turning away from her, I turned to the crowd, badge in hand. The lights glared down at me, making it impossible to pick out my parents from everyone else, but I imagined that I could hear them cheering.

Swinging around to make my exit, I felt my eyes flick to Asher. When he caught me looking he bowed deeply, and held my eyes for as long as possible as he stepped down from the makeshift stage and slipped backstage.

Returning Usui to his capsule, I walked offstage, knowing that everyone's eyes were on me.

Then I parted the curtains, and hurried after him.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

The lobby of the contest hall was empty, save for a few receptionists that were busying themselves with paperwork. Seeing Asher's retreating figure move towards the doors, I hastened after him, my sandals slapping against the floor. "Wait!" I gasped.

He didn't even glance back.

"Asher, _wait!" _

He picked up his pace.

Knowing that I would lose him as soon as he stepped outside, I blurted out the only thing I could think of. _"I know about the stone prince!" _

He stopped dead in his tracks.

Finally catching up, I moved in front of him. "That message you wrote in my journal," I said. "You said that the stone prince would know what you meant. The stone prince- Steven Stone."

He stared down at me. His eyes were colder than I remembered, the circles underneath them matching them in terms of colour: his angular face seemed sharper, as if the skin above the bones was stretched tauter. His coppery hair stuck up in spikes, as if he had been sleeping fitfully. "You have no idea what I meant," he said. Even his voice was tired.

"No," I admitted. "But I have an idea."

His face was still impassive, but his eyes urged me on.

"You lost to him, didn't you?" I asked, searching his eyes for any sign of emotion. "In the championship?"

He gazed at me for an immeasurable moment. Then he laughed once, bitterly, and pressed the thumb of his right hand to his eye as if to keep it from leaking. "You _would _like to think that, wouldn't you?" he whispered. "Even now, you don't want to think of me as a killer."

"It's not like that." My voice sounded stiff to my own ears. "I mean, I believe that you did it… I'm just not _convinced _that you did it, if that makes any sense."

He dropped his hands, though his eyes remained shut. "Why not?"

"Well…" It was madness to be talking about this- he had practically admitted to killing his team- but still, I couldn't seem to let it go. "Li stayed with you, and defended you. Plus, you wrote that acrostic in my journal. If you really did kill your team, why would you bother hinting at the fact that you didn't?"

His eyes opened, the gray of them stormy. "Why do you care?"

I blinked, but locked my jaw and matched the intensity of his stare. "Wouldn't you?"

Surprise flitted across his face, the memory of him saying that exact line to me at the Windworks cracking his mask. "You didn't before," he said, acid leaking into his voice. "What happened to me being a bastard that pretended to actually care about your loss?"

I flinched. "I was angry."

"And you aren't now?" he challenged.

"No, I still am. But … I figure that you owe me an explanation."

His gaze sharpened. "I don't owe you anything."

"Yes, you do. For making me sleep in that old house."

He expelled his breath in an angry huff, but I thought that I saw the corner of his mouth twitch. "Speaking of, is that gastly still travelling with you?"

I bit the inside of my cheek. "No."

He read my face, and turned his head away. "That doesn't surprise me," he said, his voice back to being frigid. "You're still just a little girl that would rather lick her wounds than live."

I bristled. "You're one to talk. Kaito died because I was stupid and tried to play hero- your pokemon died because you were stupid enough to play the villain."

His head snapped back to face me. "Don't talk as if you know what happened."

"Then _tell _me," I fired back. "This isn't a game, Asher. You can't just drop puzzling little hints everywhere and not expect me to try and find out what they mean. Besides, if you don't want me assuming what happened, then it would make sense that you would tell me what actually happened."

He glared at me, and I glared back. Then the booming voice of the announcer broke the silence, causing us both to jump. "Leader Fantina's pokemon is unable to battle," he declared. "Challenger Damion wins!"

I held his eyes for a moment longer before looking away, defeat coursing through me. "I'm going to go congratulate Damion," I said. "If you don't want to admit to anyone what happened, then fine." Turning, I walked back towards the arena, guilt washing over me at how I had missed Damion's fight.

"Odile." Surprised, I turned at the sound of my name. Asher stood in the same place he had before, his dark eyes trained on me. "Meet me at the Lost Tower tomorrow. If you don't show up, you can forget about me ever hinting at anything."

Against my will, I felt myself soften. "You won't regret it."

He muttered something incoherent and swept out the door, his violin case swinging from his hand. I watched him go, and then returned backstage.

I spotted Damion almost immediately. The lightness of his curls contrasted sharply with the darkness of his blazer, and his black tie was loose around his neck. Despite his hatred for formal attire, he was beaming- all except for his eyes, which were uncharacteristically somber. "Odile!" he exclaimed when he spotted me. "Great job out there!"

"You too," I said with a grin. Then I glanced at him appraisingly, brows lifted high. "Liv wasn't kidding; you _do _clean up nice."

He grimaced good-naturedly, and raised his brows right back at me. "You don't look half bad yourself, O."

There was a minute when we simply stood there smiling at each other, until some of the seriousness travelled from his eyes to his face. "You seem… off," he observed, sticking his hands in the pockets of his dress pants. "Everything okay?"

I considered telling him about Asher, but remembered his fury towards him, and decided against it. "It's your clothing," I complained. "It's too fancy for you. You look like a Ken doll Livia has dressed up."

He laughed, but I found that he was still looking at me closely. "Says the one covered in blush."

I laughed along, allowing the tense feeling in my stomach that Asher's reappearance had conjured up to dissipate. "If you're jealous, then I'm sure you can persuade Liv to do your makeup, too," I teased.

He chuckled, and then stared at me for a minute, seeming to hesitate. Then his expression solidified into something akin to determination, and he reached out to tuck a stray curl back behind my ear. I flinched at the sudden closeness as he took a step towards me, feeling my eyes widen. "Damion…?"

"Odile," he said, his tone of voice almost stern. "Look, I…I know that this isn't the best time, but I need to tell you something."

"Please don't actually persuade Livia to put makeup on you," I said automatically.

The smile that twisted his lips was nervous, and, for once, he didn't laugh. "Um, no. Wasn't planning on it."

I gazed at him curiously. "Then what is it?"

"Well…" He ran his hands through his hair. I couldn't tell for sure in the dimness, but it almost looked as if he was blushing. "Just so that there's no misunderstanding, I am being serious right now- I don't want you thinking that this is a… a joke, or something. But I need you to know that I l-"

"You two did amazing!" squealed a familiar voice, and both of us jerked away from each other as Livia darted in from the lobby, nearly bowling us over in the process. "Odile, I totally thought that you were going to lose to that mismagius for a minute- and Damion, you K.O'd that gengar in record time! Guess all that training paid off, huh?" Her gaze swivelled between the two of us, and suspicion dawned on her face. "You two look flushed. What were you two doing alone in the dark?" Excitement glinted in her eyes. "Was I interrupting anything?"

Damion's face was unmistakably red. "Shut up, Livia."

"I _was _interrupting, wasn't I?" She clapped her hands together. "I'm going to leave so that you two lovebirds can get back to it, okay? I expect _all _the details after!" she finished in a singsong voice, and flounced off.

The cadence of my heart slowed, though my cheeks still burned. I was caught between the urge to force Damion to finish what he was going to say and dropping it due to embarrassment; still, what he was meaning to say…

_You always lie to yourself about things like this, _Livia had said to me. _I don't think you've noticed, but you do. _

"Damion?" The name came out sounding shaky.

He peeked at me hesitantly, as if just looking at me would cause Livia to come barrelling in again. "Y-yeah?"

I opened my mouth to press, but chickened out. "We'd better go," I said instead. "Livia's probably still lurking in the curtains, anyway."

"I am _not!" _she squawked. There was a rustling, and her indignant face poked out of the velvet red curtains. "I was just… looking for my earrings."

"You don't wear earrings," I deadpanned.

She blew her cheeks out. "Whatever. Can you really blame me for listening in? I have waited _so long _for a confession between the two of you-"

A look of accord passed between Damion and I, and we went to hook an arm around each of hers. Lifting her out of the curtains, we dragged her out into the lobby, where we met up with my parents.

Damion didn't bring up our conversation again.

Neither did I.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

The next day dawned cold and bright, a brisk wind picking up as we stood at the outskirts of Hearthome. Mom wrapped my scarf more securely around my neck. "Honey, the temperature's been dropping like crazy lately," she told me. "Make sure not to catch a cold."

"Okay, Mom," I said. It was nice to be back in my travelling clothes: my coat had never been warmer, my jeans never more comfortable after spending yesterday in a dress.

My dad stepped forward next, clearing his throat before speaking. "Where are you heading next?"

_The Lost Tower. _"The next gym's in Pastoria, so I'll be going there," I said. "But I'll probably stop in Solaceon Town on the way. The ruins there sound pretty interesting."

He shot a begrudging look at Damion. "And what about you, Damion?"

Damion shrugged, and managed a grin. He was back to wearing his usual clothes, which were rumpled from the dryer. "I'm going to Pastoria, too," he said. "But first I'm going back to Eterna to fix up the Death Machine."

"The what?" I heard my mom mumble.

"By 'fix up', I hope you mean 'trade in'," I told him. Though it was slightly awkward to talk to him now, nothing had drastically changed. "Preferably for something that won't get you killed."

He laughed, and the burst of breath rose up in the frigid air like smoke. "Not a chance."

"Well, good luck with that," I said with a roll of my eyes. "I'll see you in Pastoria, then."

"Be seeing you." He offered a hand to my dad, ever the glutton for punishment, and received a handshake so harsh and brief that I swore I heard bones cracking. He gave a friendly wave to my mom, and, pointedly ignoring Livia, ruffled my hair before jogging off.

Livia put a hand on her hip. "Don't hold a grudge, Goldie Locks!" she hollered at his retreating figure. "I really didn't mean to interrupt anything! Jeez."

My mom slid a puzzled look in her direction. "What about interrupting, Olivia?"

"Nothing!" I assured her hastily, after shooting a poisonous look at Livia. "I gave you a zubat," I reminded my friend. "So in return, keep that sort of stuff to yourself, okay?"

She made a grumpy noise, but nodded. Giving her Cullen this morning had been a spur-of-the-moment idea, but one that I didn't regret; she had been overjoyed, and he had found a proper home.

"Well." My dad rubbed a hand over the stubble on his chin, his eyes lowered to mine. "Remember to call us, Odile."

"Every Friday," Mom chimed in.

"I will," I promised. "Don't worry."

Dad pulled me in for a hug, which I accepted. "Good luck."

"Thanks, Dad," I mumbled into his shoulder. Stepping out of his arms, I gave my mom a farewell squeeze. "I'll miss you, Mom."

"I'll miss you too, honey." I could hear the smile in her voice. "I heard that there's an actual contest happening here in Hearthome in a week or two. You should enter."

"I'll give it a shot." I then went to Livia. "It was great to see you again, Liv. Say hello to everyone back home for me, okay? And slap Ryan for thinking that I was pregnant for me."

"Will do," she answered dutifully, giving me a lopsided smile. "And call me once in a while, okay? If you ever need a favour, want to chat, have to gush about a certain fair-haired boyfriend of yours…"

"_Goodbye, _Liv," I sighed.

Her fingers splayed in the peace sign. "No fear."

Feeling a little choked up, I smiled at them, the weight of the pokeballs around my neck and the newly-added badge clipped to my trainer card making me hold my head high. "I love you all," I told them. "Goodbye."

"Goodbye," they chorused, smiling back.

Turning, I walked away from them and into the gate that connected Hearthome the next route. My steps were slow at first, but picked up speed the farther away from my parents I went.

By the time I reached the new route I was running, my arms pumping, my runners kicking up dirt. It felt as if the song Asher had sang was filling me up, inspiration flowing through my veins as the cold air landed stinging blows on my cheeks and hands.

The running motion caused the pokeballs on my necklace to bump against my chest, and my pokemon were released. They all joined me: Hatter waddling behind me; Winry bounding ahead, with Hunny and Usui on her back; Magnus jumping up to curl himself around my upper arm; Tesserae trotting on shaky legs beside me; and Odette gliding above, flapping her stiff wings.

"So, what do you say to some training once we reach Solaceon?" I asked my team. "I'm meeting up with someone, but I'm sure we'll have enough time beforehand to train and check out the rui-"

The sound of Odette squawking caused me to break off mid-sentence, and my head snapped up to look at her. "What is it, Odette?"

She flew faster in response, and I had to double my speed to keep up with her. She led behind a cluster of bushes and around a pond, and settled on the top of what looked to be a crumbling tower.

It was stationed on the slant of a hill, with moss-ridden bricks making up what might have once been a proud structure. The bricks looked almost as if they had been shattered with a hammer, with huge chunks taken out of them, and it seemed as if no one had neared it for decades.

That, however, was not what Odette was gesturing at.

She was pointing her wing at the cave-sized hole in the hill, the surrounding bricks of the tower making it look like a doorway. Blinking, I peered into it, only to find that the murky darkness was impossible to pierce.

"I didn't know that the Solaceon Ruins stretched down this far," I mused. "Good find, Odette."

She chirped in a pleased manner.

I carefully stepped into the opening. "Come on, guys," I prompted, attempting to gesture to them with Magnus still cutting off the blood circulation in my arm. "Tess, you should lead. We need you to light the way."

She picked her way around me and did as directed, the flames of her mane providing enough light for us to proceed. It was, indeed, a cave, and the innards of it were slick with dampness. More water dripped down the further down we delved. "Stick together, everyone," I cautioned, my voice echoing down the tunnel. "I don't want to lose any of you."

We ventured for a minute or two longer before the tunnel opened up into a cavernous grotto. Tesserae's flames only illuminated a small portion of it, and I darted ahead, pressing my palms against the left wall. Engravings covered every square centimetre of it, unown symbols etched deep into the stone. "Look at these," I exclaimed, motioning for them to come join me. They all remained at the entry to the grotto, looking about uncertainly- all except Odette, who fluttered over to hover beside me, and Magnus, who was still attached to my arm. Shrugging their lack of excitement off, I rifled through my bag until I found my phone, and then whipped it out to take a picture of some of the markings.

It was when I was stuffing my cell back into my bag that I realised something was wrong.

Winry was bristling, tasting the air with flared nostrils. My other pokemon were slowly becoming more on edge, their expressions uneasy in the flickering half-light.

There was a voice. A muffled, indiscernible voice. A voice that wasn't mine.

A voice that ordered, "Rock Tomb."

Four things happened at once.

A rumbling began, as if the earth itself was bellowing-

I looked up, at the boulders that were hurtling down from the ceiling-

Wings pushed at my back, propelling me forward-

And it was only a split second later that I found myself laying on the ground, bleeding from the head. The tidal wave of noise had stopped as abruptly as it had started, and I forced myself into a sitting position, wracked by shudders.

With one hand to my head, I twisted around, and felt sickness knot in my stomach.

Because there, blanketed with half a dozen boulders, was Odette.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

_A/ N: So, yeah. I just really wanted to get this chapter finished._

_Anyone getting flashbacks of Brendan from Alexial's Nuzlocke with the whole trying-to-confess thing? I know I am._

_No, the place where Odile and her team went is not a part of the Solaceon Ruins. It is in fact the Hallowed Tower, but they don't know that._

_Oh hay, Asher's back. Funny story- I was talking to Olihmajor online, and I started complaining about how Asher's dialogue was a bitch to write. It was funny because I completely forgot that his arrival was a surprise, and totally ruined it for her ^^'_

_Merry Christmas, everyone! Know what I want for Christmas? For you guys to give me questions for the Qs and As : ) _

_I look forward to your reviews C : _

_Dare You To Move, by Switchfoot: Is from Asher's POV, about how he wants to see Odile get a grip on herself and prove herself worthy to be a trainer. Is self-explanatory._

'_Welcome to the planet  
>Welcome to existence<br>Everyone's here  
>Everyone's here<br>Everybody's watching you now  
>Everybody waits for you now<br>What happens next  
>What happens next'<em>

_[Chorus]__  
>'I dare you to move<br>I dare you to move  
>I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor<br>I dare you to move  
>I dare you to move<br>Like today never happened  
>Today never happened before'<em>

_'Welcome to the fallout_  
><em>Welcome to resistance<em>  
><em>The tension is here<em>  
><em>Tension is here<em>  
><em>Between who you are and who you could be<em>  
><em>Between how it is and how it should be'<em>

_[Chorus]_

_'Maybe redemption has stories to tell_  
><em>Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell<em>  
><em>Where can you run to escape from yourself?<em>  
><em>Where you gonna go?<em>  
><em>Where you gonna go?<em>  
><em>Salvation is here'<em>

_'I dare you to move_  
><em>I dare you to move<em>  
><em>I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor<em>  
><em>I dare you to move<em>  
><em>I dare you to move<em>  
><em>Like today never happened<em>  
><em>Today never happened<em>  
><em>Today never happened<em>  
><em>Today never happened before'<em>


	18. Chapter Fifteen

**Disclaimer: **Arch: That's awesome; I love Oh! Gravity. And yes, Asher's back : ) Also, that is an amazing question; thanks SO MUCH for asking it! Whiterose: Thanks! ^^ Olih: Whoops, I'll fix that D X And of course I can, it's Steven C : THANKS FOR THE QUESTIONS! Arther: *Trollface* C'mon, I can't give you a confession THAT easily. Thanks for the questions! And sure, you can ask Livia. Lunary: Thanks for reviewing! : ) Yeah, it wasn't a real contest, but Odile DOES partake in a contest. Just not yet. Also, Win's my luxio. Platinum: EVERYONE, GO CHECK OUT PLATINUM'S NEW FIC, 'SHADES OF GREY'. IT IS AMAZING. Mitsy: Hallo, friendly friend. Thanks so much for reviewing this! You're way too nice. THANKS FOR THE QUESTIONS!

**Important Notice:**** Since I've reached a hundred reviews thanks to all of you lovely, lovely people, that means I'll be doing a Questions and Answers for this fic! There is no amount to the number of questions/ comments you can submit. The characters you are allowed to direct the comments/ questions to are as follows: Odile; Damion; Asher; Odile's team (including boxed pokemon, such as Cullen); me, the authoress; and Li, Asher's absol. Questions/ comments won't be used if question is answered in fic/ is directed towards a character that has since died. Enjoy!**

**You can submit your questions/comments anytime now. So please do : ) EVEN IF YOU HAVE ALREADY ASKED QUESTIONS, YOU MAY STILL DO SO IF YOU THINK OF MORE. **

The song for this chapter is (if you want to get into the mood of the story): 'Riverside' by Agnes Obel.

**Chapter Fifteen: Riverside **

Certain moments go on forever. This was one of those moments.

My body seemed to be on autopilot, my mind rerunning the scene of the rocks falling over and over and over again. Without consciously deciding to do so, I staggered forward, and started clawing at the rocks in a fruitless attempt to remove them from Odette.

"No," I moaned. Whirling to face my team, tears began pushing at the backs of my eyes. _"Help me."_

My pokemon stared, Tesserae's flames lighting their bewildered expressions. It was Winry who eventually shook off her shock and sprang forward, eyes ablaze with terrible grief. She curled her tail around the nearest boulder, and together we heaved, accomplishing nothing.

"Once more," I yelled. "_Heave."_

Underneath the boulders, Odette uttered a cry of deprecation.

"Again," I screamed, and I couldn't tell if the liquid scalding my cheeks was blood or tears. "Again. Again." The words bled into a string of repetition, and I pushed off of the rocks to face the darkness of the cavern. "Not again," I whispered, my shoulders shaking as I fought the urge to cover my eyes. "Arceus, not again."

From the impenetrable gloom of the cave, I glimpsed a flicker of light. Footfalls, unsure and stumbling, reached my ears shortly after.

Grief flooded through me. "You murderer!" I screeched, the echoes rebounding off the walls. _Murderer, murderer, murderer. _"Show your face!" _Your face, face, face.  
><em>

As the footsteps grew more distant, I hoped my voice followed whoever it was. I hoped he or she was crushed by a thousand fucking rocks on the way out.

Winry padded to my side, eyes still glowing. She was shaking, her fur sparkling with barely-leashed electricity.

Reading my face, the tremors that wracked her increased tenfold, and she turned away from me. Coughing out an enraged noise, the sparks that danced along her pelt morphed into a blinding white light that engulfed her completely, and her muscles bunched in a crouch.

Winry leapt as a luxio; she landed as a luxray. Brute strength rolled underneath her now-darker fur, tufts of black contrasting with the blue. Her amber eyes were ringed in red, her tail twice as long and three times as thick as it used to be.

Wrapping her tail around the boulder that trapped Odette, she snarled, and put all of her weight into pulling. With the sound of rock scraping against rock, it came free, and crashed into the opposite wall. My team scattered, dodging the chunks of boulder that came raining down.

My legs gave out, and I fell to my knees beside Odette. Her wings rested on either side of her head, her chest sunken like dented armour. Keening, I picked up her thin, broken body, and pressed my face against her heart to hear its feeble beats.

Struggling to my feet, I rose with her in my arms. "Thank you, Winry," I choked out, and then turned to the rest of my pokemon. "Tesserae, start heading back up. We have to get Odette to a Pokecenter."

My ponyta stared back at me with wide, glazed eyes.

Something inside me snapped. "Start moving!" I shouted, the words causing her to flinch. With round eyes she turned, and began shakily walking back the way we came. My other pokemon gazed at me for a moment in surprise before turning to follow her, their steps clumsy with shock.

Winry and I followed behind them, the darkness of the cave seeming to reach for us as we left it behind.

_Murderer, _it seemed to whisper. _Murderer, murderer, murderer._

Then, in an echo so twisted I couldn't tell if someone had yelled it from the other side of the cavern or if I was imagining it, came the words, _Your fault, fault, fault._

_This is all your fault._

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

The Pokecenter was too sterile for my liking, too pretty and white and polished. It made me want to run screaming down its halls, dragging my dirtied, bloodied hands across the white walls and kick over all the gleaming new furniture. But instead I sat there, grimy hands locked together, throbbing eyes staring straight through the opposite wall.

In the beginning the nurses had fussed over me, asking me what had happened and telling me that they would clean me up and take good care of me. Then they had seen Odette, and had rushed her off to the emergency room before taking the rest of my team and healing them in their capsules.

"Are you okay?" one of the Nurse Joys had asked, a chansey standing solemnly at her side.

"Yes," I had told her. But now, waiting outside the emergency room for any news about Odette, I wished that I had told her no.

After sitting in that chair for what felt like an eternity, another nurse came to tell me that one of my pokemon wanted to see me. Not giving me time to answer, she gestured to Hatter, who came waddling out. She then left us, clipboard in hand.

My prinplup kept his distance, stopping a metre or so away from me. His tuque was in its proper place atop his head, the eyes underneath the rim more serious than I had ever seen them. A pang went through me, and I felt grief sink its claws deeper into my chest: Hatter hated me, too. My whole team hated me for letting another one of them die.

"I've been thinking," I began, feeling out of my mind with guilt. "I've heard some scientists say that babies grow to suit their names. Maybe that goes for pokemon, too." I took a deep breath. "I named you Hatter after the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland, did you know that? I guess you didn't; you probably thought that it was because of your hat, and that's partly it, too. But the Hatter has always been one of my favourite characters, in any version of it." I rubbed a hand over my hair, and didn't care when it came away red. "The saying 'Mad as a hatter' comes from the era when hatters had to work with high levels of mercury. Mercury affects peoples' nervous systems if handled too often. This caused them to develop mood-swings, aggressiveness, and antisocial behavior." Curling my fingers in towards my palms, I looked away from my pokemon's steady gaze. "I guess the same thing would happen to a pokemon that's had to deal with too much death, as well. I don't want you to end up like that, Hatter…but I'm scared that we'll both end up that way if this keeps happening."

He stared, and I couldn't help but feel that he was horrified.

"Winry, too," I continued, the words continuing to spill out from between my lips. "I named her after one of the strongest anime characters I know. But even though the character was strong, she was always being left behind. She couldn't kill when she needed to. Instead of being the saviour, she was the one being saved." A shaking had begun in my center, and was rapidly spreading. "Winry's too strong to be stuck with a trainer as incapable as I am. I haven't even lost any of you in real battles- you were all killed in ways that wouldn't have happened if I wasn't your trainer. And if she's as similar to her namesake as I think she is… well, I won't be strong enough to save her."

A white light had begun to glow among the liquid blackness of Hatter's pupils, pulsating like the lights overhead.

"'Tesserae' means 'mosaic piece': one piece that helps make up an entire mosaic. I didn't notice before now, but that reflects on how she's just one member that makes up our entire team. I don't think that she even likes fighting; she's so skittish, I'm afraid that she'll freeze up during battle and that I'll have no way to save her."

Hatter was shaking, too, as if my convulsions had spread out far enough that they had reached him.

"The inspiration for Mytho's name was a character that had had his heart stolen by the girl that loved him. Despite having no heart, he recovered his senses in time to save her." A watery sigh was squeezed from my lungs. "In a way, I guess that that Mytho and our Mytho were similar: despite being unfeeling, they both became heroes at the end. The difference is that one had his happy ending."

His ruffled feathers stuck straight up, blue and quivering.

"Kaito is the name of one of the Vocaloids: a virtual singer with many different personalities and identities, none of them being his own. Like a ghost. Like the Kaito we knew. But, like the Kaito we knew, that character only died in some of the songs he sang. This song just happened to be one of the ones in which he did, I guess."

A single tear dripped down Hatter's feathered face, glowing as white-hot as a candle's flame.

"Odette is one of the main characters in the ballet Swan Lake. In each version of the play, her ending is different: in one version, her and her prince commit suicide by throwing themselves into the lake; in another, she and her prince have their happy ending; and sometimes her prince dies, and curtain falls at the scene of her mourning him." My nails bit into my palms. "I guess we'll see which version this play is."

The light from his eyes and tear seeped into him, the light spreading until his entire body was aglow. I got to my feet in surprise, unsure of how to react.

He was a blur of white to my eyes as he moved towards me: as I watched, the blur grew taller, widening into a glowing silhouette that nearly reached the ceiling.

As he approached me, one of his luminous flippers swung up, connecting with the side of my face: the force of it caused me to stagger backwards, tipping over the chair and fall in a crumpled heap to the floor.

Too stunned to feel pain yet, I looked up. Hatter stood above me, a broad-shouldered empoleon: blue and white steel plates covered his body, a crown of golden horns extending from his beak. The tips of them protruded from his tuque, keeping it firmly in place.

His eyes blinked down at me, unchanged. In them, I saw not blame and hate, but understanding. And that understanding chased away all the numbness in my body, replacing it with rationality.

"I'm sorry," I croaked, struggling into a sitting position. "Arceus, Hatter, I'm sorry. This isn't fair to you. I shouldn't be acting like this."

A low hum emanated from his beak, and he reached down with one mammoth flipper. I wrapped both hands around it, and he hauled me to my feet, the blue of his eyes magnified in remorse.

"Don't worry about it," I told him, though my face stung with the force of the blow. "I deserved it for making this all about me."

Pulling me against him, he wrapped his sharp flippers around me, and I pressed my cheek against his cold breastplate. We stayed like that until I heard the sound of someone clearing their throat, and we pulled apart to find a doctor standing behind us.

"We'd like you to come join us in the emergency room now," he told me, his tone grave.

Hatter put a flipper on my shoulder, but I shrugged him off. "I think you'd better stay with the others," I told him, my throat feeling tight.

He dipped his head in a nod, and shuffled back into the resting room, his giant frame almost too thick to make it through the doorway.

Turning back to the doctor, I asked, "How is she?"

He hesitated before answering, "We have a few matters to discuss with you, miss."

My heart plummeted, and the shaking returned as he led me into the emergency room. My eyes landed on the gray body that was laid out on the white table in the center of the room, and I hurried over to her, my breath catching in my throat. Her eyes were closed, with various tubes hooked up to her abdomen.

"Every bone in both of her wings are broken," said the doctor quietly, moving to stand behind me. "Her spine is severed. She has internal bleeding. She is on morphine now for the pain, but she is reacting negatively to it. We'll have to take her off of it."

Pressing a hand to my mouth, I stifled a sob. _We've cleaned your starly up, but X-rays show that she has taken damage to the bones in her wings, _the nurse in Oreburgh had told me. _She's fine for now, but if they worsen any more the humane thing to do would be to put her down._

"The humane thing to do would be to put her down, miss," he finished, echoing my thoughts. "If you'd let us."

I turned watering eyes onto him. He gazed down at me, his eyes lacking any real sadness. As if he had seen to many deaths to feel remorse for them anymore.

Arceus, I prayed that I wouldn't end up like that.

"Yes," I whispered. "Arceus, please do. But, before you do…can she- can she hear anything? Is she still…responsive?"

"I don't know, miss," he informed me gravelly. "But even so, feel free to spend a moment alone."

"I will. Thanks." Lowering my eyes back to Odette, I heard him leave the room. Sliding my hand over the white countertop, I touched my fingers to the tip of her wing, and gently stroked her feathers. She didn't stir. "I don't know if you can hear me right now," I told her, "but I want you to know that I'm sorry. No, more than that- I wanted to thank you. I wanted to thank you for everything you've done, and tell you that I'm sorry for everything _I've _done. I've done so much to hurt you…and now I'm doing this." Still, there was no response, and I felt my throat tighten until there was no more room left to breathe. "Goodbye, Odette," I murmured, bending to press a kiss to her broken beak. "I love you."

Hearing the doctor re-enter, I straightened, wiping at the tears on my face. "Are you ready?" he questioned.

I nodded, unable to speak.

Moving around the table, he unplugged each machine, the cords that flowed from her drooping towards the floor. After disconnecting all of them, he uttered an apology and left.

Forcing uneven, hitching breaths down my throat, I sank into the chair pressed against the far wall, and watched as she stopped breathing.

An hour later, I finally decided that she wouldn't start again.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

I walked into the resting room, where my pokemon awaited me. Their heads snapped up at my entrance, and their eyes fastened on the blanket-wrapped bundle in my arms.

"She didn't make it," I told them, tears spilling. "I am so sorry. Especially to you, Tesserae- I didn't mean to snap at you. It's just..."

Winry stared at me, stricken, before snarling and slamming her tail into the floor. Hunny made soothing noises, though his eyes also brimmed with pain, and she growled for a moment longer before lowering her muzzle and allowing him to stroke her fur. Usui's bland expression flickered, and he shut his eyes as Magnus wriggled onto his lap with drooping ears. Tesserae came to knead my leg with the top of her head, and Hatter gazed at me from across the room, his sympathetic eyes full of questions.

"We're going to bury her in the Lost Tower," I told him, stroking Tess's neck. "And after that, I'm going to have a talk with Asher."

He nodded, and, after a moment of silence, we headed out of the Pokecenter and into the wintry night air.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

_A/ N: I really struggled with this chapter, okay? Cut me some slack. After the bonus chapter will be the chapter with Asher, and we'll finally learn what he's been hiding._

_R. I. P Odette, lv. 4- 30. _

_You were finally getting better, too. Sorry that your play had to end like this; with you losing your prince, and yourself. At least now you'll be together. _

_Riverside, by Agnes Obel: Will be explained in the bonus chapter._

'_Down by the river by the boats  
>Where everybody goes to be alone<br>Where you won't see any rising sun  
>Down to the river we will run' <em>

'_When by the water we drink to the dregs  
>Look at the stones on the river bed<br>I can tell from your eyes  
>You've never been by the riverside'<em>

'_Down by the water the riverbed  
>Somebody calls you somebody says<br>swim with the current and float away  
>Down by the river everyday'<em>

'_Oh my God I see how everything is torn in the river deep  
>And I don't know why I go the way<br>Down by the riverside'_

_'When that old river runs pass your eyes_  
><em>To wash off the dirt on the riverside<em>  
><em>Go to the water so very near<em>  
><em>The river will be your eyes and ears'<em>

_'I walk to the borders on my own_  
><em>To fall in the water just like a stone<em>  
><em>Chilled to the marrow in them bones<em>  
><em>Why do I go here all alone'<em>

_'Oh my God I see how everything is torn in the river deep_  
><em>And I don't know why I go the way<em>  
><em>Down by the riverside'<em>


	19. Bonus 3

**Disclaimer: **

**Important Notice:**** Since I've reached a hundred reviews thanks to all of you lovely, lovely people, that means I'll be doing a Questions and Answers for this fic! There is no amount to the number of questions/ comments you can submit. The characters you are allowed to direct the comments/ questions to are as follows: Odile; Damion; Asher; Odile's team (including boxed pokemon, such as Cullen); me, the authoress; and Li, Asher's absol. Questions/ comments won't be used if question is answered in fic/ is directed towards a character that has since died. Enjoy!**

**You can submit your questions/comments anytime now. So please do : ) EVEN IF YOU HAVE ALREADY ASKED QUESTIONS, YOU MAY STILL DO SO IF YOU THINK OF MORE. **

The song for this chapter is (if you want to get into the mood of the story): 'Riverside' by Agnes Obel.

This chapter is from Odette's POV. Flashbacks are italicised.

**Bonus: Odette**

_~Down by the river, by the boats_

_Where everybody goes to be alone_

_Where you won't see any rising sun_

_Down to the river, we will run~_

Family. That's the only way to describe our team: we're a family.

There's Hatter, who's like a dad in the way he keeps the peace. And I guess I'm the grandmother, in a way; I kiss everybody's bruises and ruffle hair and nag everyone until they start grumbling and return themselves to their pokeballs. Winry and Tess are the older sisters, while Hunny's the younger brother. Magnus is the toddler that needs babysitting, and Usui's the promiscuous cousin who's impossible to hate.

_(Mytho used to be the cranky grandfather, and Kaito had been the goofball of an uncle- but I can't think of them, not now. I already have too many reasons to cry, without adding them to the list.)_

A family.

Odile completes our family. She's our mother: she brought us together, and keeps us together. That's the reason I fight for her: because she gave me my family.

And, as the doctors hook me up to various machines, I realise that that's the reason I'm dying for her, too.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

_~When by the water, we drink to the dregs_

"_Look at the stones on the riverbed!"_

_I can tell from your eyes,_

_You've never been by the riverside~_

_The night before Odile's battle with Fantina, we release ourselves from our capsules and sneak out into the cool night air._

"_Where are we going?" whispers Tessie, large eyes darting nervously._

"_Does it matter?" Usui laughs, his rich, velvety voice sending shivers down my spine._

_I perch myself on Tess's back, being wary of her mane. "Yes, it matters," I tell him, ignoring how the moonlight turns his petals silver. "Can't you see she's scared?"_

_He flashes us one of his handsomest smiles. "I simply thought that we could go to someplace I know around here," he replies, waving one of his petals. "No need to be anxious, darlings. You'll get frown lines if you two keep wearing those expressions."_

_Winry, who's trotting along in front of us, turns her head. "You're such a talker, pretty boy," she scoffs. "Can you try _not _to flirt with anyone within a two-metre radius?"_

_His smile curves into a smirk. "Getting jealous, lioness?"_

_She snorts. "In your dreams, grassface. I don't go for types like you."_

_On her back, I think I see Hunny give a hopeful twitch of his ears- but it's probably just wishful thinking. Mytho always did say that I was a hopeless romantic._

_Mytho. Even now, it hurts to think of him._

"I _luffs you," Magnus drawls from his seat on Win's head, yanking me from my thoughts. _

"_We 'luffs' you too, Magnus," purrs Winry affectionately, reaching up with her tail to pat his head. "You are such a mindfuck, you weirdo, I love you."_

"_Language, Win," Hatter and I chide her in tandem._

_She sticks her tongue out in reply._

_We exit Hearthome, and Usui takes the lead. Guiding us through the tall grass, he gives an appreciative sigh, and says, "Here we are." Then the grass parts, and a moon-touched river comes into view._

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

_~Down by the water, the riverbed_

_Somebody calls you, somebody says_

"_Swim with the current and float away_

"_Down by the river everyday"~_

I've wasted so much time with my family, too. After- after Mytho's death… I had never been like that before. It was as if I couldn't get motivated to do even the simplest of things. And when Kaito had gone, so shortly after…Arceus, I had been wrecked.

Please, please don't let my death do that to anyone.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

_~Oh my God, I see how everything is torn in the river deep_

_And I don't know why I go the way_

_Down by the riverside~_

_We sit in a circle on the riverbank, the lapping of waves a sweet sound to my ears. _

"_You know," says Hatter after a moment, his blue eyes bright as a summer's day compared to the night, "Even though we're travelling together- and some of us have been for a while- I don't know how any of you lived before this."_

_Winry's ears twitch. "I don't see why it matters," she says hotly. "We're here now, aren't we?"_

"_Yeah," he answers, ever patient, "but still, I'm curious. You don't have to tell us if you're shy, Win."_

_A flush steals across her cheeks. "I'm not shy," she snaps. "Before this, I did the norm: slept and hunted, slept and hunted. There was nothing else to do other than that, and boy, did it get boring."_

_Hatter's eyes gleam intuitively. "What about your parents? Or siblings?"_

_She stiffens, and hesitates before saying, "They were captured. I escaped. End of story."_

"_So why'd you stalk Odile, then?" asks Hatter._

_She shrugs one shoulder, fur bristling with unease. "As I said, I was bored. She was there. Do the math." Then she flicks him an irritated look. "What about you, birdbrain? What did you do before this?"_

"_The other lab pokemon and I grew up together," he says peaceably. "Me and Damion's turtwig- Bamf, I think he named her?- got along especially well. I guess it's fitting that we're rivals now: that way we can see each other improve, and maybe even talk to each other once in a while."_

"_Rivals," spits Winry. "Who needs them? I find them more annoying than anything."_

"_I had a few rivals," Hunny interjects. I have to strain to hear his soft voice. "I used to live in the gym in Veilstone, before the fighting pokemon kicked me out. The hitmonlee there taught me everything I know."_

_Winry's expression flattens. "Why'd they kick you out?"_

"_Because I broke the gym leader's lucario's nose," he says, his tone modest despite his words. "They got angry, and told me they'd kill me if I tried to sneak back in."_

"_No one touches my bro," growls Winry, teeth bared. "When we get there we are going to bring them down, you hear? The hour of hardcore ass-kicking is nigh."_

_Hunny grins, and snuggles deeper into her fur. _

"_See, the people at the Contest Hall were most kind to me," Usui tells us, both petals held behind his head as he reclines. "Whenever I visited, they would always bestow gifts upon me. I suppose my charm affects even human women." He says this as if it's tragic, but a fact of life._

_Winry mutters something, which Hunny snickers at._

"_I-I lived just outside Oreburgh," stammers Tesserae, speaking as if she expects someone to break in and tell her to shut up at any minute. "There was always s-so much noise coming from the mines, with great m-m-metal monsters screeching day in and day out. Mum and I l-l-lived there until, one day, one of the m-monsters came. They did something to her; s-she, she fell over, and I was alone. I didn't know what to do- it always seemed to be raining, and I was so hungry all the t-time…"_

"_Sweetie, you don't need to tell us," I tell her, hopping over to put a wing on her flank. "Don't sadden yourself. We're here for you."_

_She sniffles, and gives me a smile. _

"_And what of you, Odette?" asks Usui, his voice like a silken ribbon twining through the air. _

"_Me? Oh, there's nothing much to tell." I can feel the depression circling me again, watching, waiting. Always waiting. "And definitely not anything worth recounting."_

_Hatter moves towards me. "Are you okay, Odette?" he murmurs._

"_Yes." _

_Usui tilts his head toward me, his eyes calculating. "Why are you so reluctant to tell us your tale, darling?" he queries. "I'm sure it's one of romance and intrigue."_

_I feel my face grow hot, and I have to close my eyes to keep the tears back. "No, it's really not."_

"_Nonsense," he persists, his voice as languid as ever. "Such a pretty pokemon like you-"_

"_Stop calling me pretty." My eyes open, and though I don't mean to sound sharp, the words come out like knives. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to be harsh, but…I'm not." I stretch my stiff, half-folded wings out, and wiggle the stump of my leg around in evidence. "_This _is not pretty. _This _is not a tale of 'romance and intrigue'; this is what happens when your first trainer was a little boy with extreme anger and no sense of how strong he was. _This _is what you start to look like after you have to break your own pokeball to escape and hide in an unfamiliar route until someone kindly-looking happens to pass."_

_There is a silence, and I feel miserable for snapping at them. But then Usui speaks, and, for once, he doesn't sound fastidious. He sounds almost… sincere. "I'm sorry. I didn't know."_

"_I know," I sigh. "It's okay. Really. It just…still hurts at times, is all."_

_The quiet stretches on. Then Magnus gets to his feet, and slinks over to run his saggy tongue over the side of my face. "There. You has been healed," he declares, tail thumping the ground._

_And just like that, the tension diffuses. All at once, we start laughing: the sound plays across the water like moonlight, winking up at the stars in the sky._

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

_~When that old river runs past your eyes_

_To wash off the dirt on the riverside_

_Go to the water, so very near_

_The water will be your eyes and ears~_

It saddens me that I'll never grow old, never have children- but, at the same time, I feel at ease. The arthritis that causes each flap of my wings to become painful…I won't have to deal with that anymore. I won't have to balance myself whenever I stand. I'll simply sleep.

From somewhere deep inside me, I feel the same tiredness that had taken Mytho tug at me. It's insistent, but not pushy: like the current of a gently-flowing river. Like the current of _the _gently-flowing river. The one that Mytho had floated along, getting farther and farther away until he had vanished completely.

Of course, by that time, he had already been gone.

Maybe it'll be the same for me, too.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

_~I walk to the borders on my own_

_Fall in the water just like a stone_

_Chilled to the marrow in them bones_

_Why do I go here all alone?~_

"_I'm so grateful I met you all," I say as we head back, the rising sun warming our backs. "My precious family."_

_They smile, and though each of their replies is different, they all resound with the same affection:_

"_Don't get all sappy on me, you crybaby."_

"_Me, too."_

"_Thanks, Odette."_

"_My feets hurt. Rest soon."_

"_Even though we are not related to each other in any way…yes, I suppose we could be considered that, sweetheart."_

"_T-thank you, Odette."_

_I can almost hear Mytho's answer, too: sarcastic, bitter, and cynical, and wholly him. Wholly Mytho: Mytho, with the cruel words and kind eyes and hard heart._

_Mytho, whose presence I feel even nearer to me nowadays. _

_And I know that that should scare me, but all I feel is a little bit sad._

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

_~Oh my God, I see how everything is told in the river deep_

_And I don't know why I go the way_

_Down by the riverside~_

I can hear a familiar voice as if from underwater, and the endlessness behind my eyelids is the colour of dead water at night. "I don't know if you can hear me right now," whispers the voice, "but I want you to know that I'm sorry. No, more than that- I wanted to thank you. I wanted to thank you for everything you've done, and tell you that I'm sorry for everything _I've _done. I've done so much to hurt you…and now I'm doing this." The words were spoken in tandem by two voices: a girl's and a boy's, one speaking outside of my mind and the other speaking from the inside.

Odile and Mytho.

"Goodbye, Odette." I feel a touch on my beak, like a kiss. "I love you."

There's the sound of feet shuffling, and the tiredness rises up within me like a wave. I can almost hear the melody of water lapping the riverbank, and the blackness behind my eyes is replaced by the sight of Floaroma's river. I feel as if I'm being held aloft by the water, almost like floating- and the more tired I grow, the more colours explode in my mind's eye. A myriad of rainbows, flashing and spinning and soaring like-

Like wings.

It's then, when the tiredness morphs into exhaustion, that all the pain in my body drains away and I feel myself being lifted up, up, up by those wings. I'm being lifted up into a sensation that's not unlike slipping under the surface of cool water: pleasant, relaxing, homely.

Then the absurd, all-too-fitting thought hits me: the thought that this is what a drop of water feels like as it falls into a pond and joins the rest of the water.

And the thought that we'll always be family, no matter what happens.

_~And I don't know why I go the way_

_Down by the riverside_

_Oooh, Oooh_

_Down by the riverside~_

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

_A/ N: Please check these out- it's how I imagine Asher and Damion to look like!_

_For Asher, http:/ browse. /?q =hikaru &order=9&offset=48#/dm173c without spaces, or just type in 'Ouran Hikaru Snakey' into Google, and it'll be the first one to pop up._

_For Damion (OKAY, HE HAS A TATTOO IN THIS PIC, SO JUST IGNORE THE TATTOO) http:/ .com/?qh=§ion= &q=jace+wayland#/d4gvb vo without spaces, or just type in 'Jace Wayland Tabeck' into Google, and it'll be the first one to pop up._

_Please check them out ^^_


	20. Chapter Sixteen

**Disclaimer: **Tri: That's so very sweet of you. Thanks : ) Fromidam: Thanks SO much for the question! C : Olih: ; ~ ; Thank you. I'm really pleased that I did the evolutions better this time, as well : ) Ivy: Awww, thank you : 3 *Gives you a tissue* White: Thank you! Platinum: You're way too nice : ) Thanks so much. Ebaz: Thanks! I was a little unsure about including the name-idea bit, but I'm happy it worked out. Mitsy: Aren't they? 0/0 Anyway, sorry for making you cry ) : Still, thanks for reviewing- and thanks for checking out the pics! ItsALife: Wow, your comment touched my heart : ) Thank you for that. Arch: Your comment was one of the most eloquent I've ever read- really, I liked that a lot. Honest, but poetic in a way. I'm glad I managed to get such a review from you! Arthur: ) : Lunary: Yay! I'm glad it's letting you review! Now that I think about it, yeah, Usui is like a little like Harley ^^ LilSisofSilver: Hello; I'm very sorry I made you cry, and for making Looker an asshole ; ) You're awesome, too; and, yeah, I'm friends with Silver.

**Important Notice:**** Since I've reached a hundred reviews thanks to all of you lovely, lovely people, that means I'll be doing a Questions and Answers for this fic! There is no amount to the number of questions/ comments you can submit. The characters you are allowed to direct the comments/ questions to are as follows: Odile; Damion; Asher; Odile's team (including boxed pokemon, such as Cullen); me, the authoress; and Li, Asher's absol. Questions/ comments won't be used if question is answered in fic/ is directed towards a character that has since died. Enjoy!**

**You can submit your questions/comments anytime now. So please do : ) EVEN IF YOU HAVE ALREADY ASKED QUESTIONS, YOU MAY STILL DO SO IF YOU THINK OF MORE. **

**HEY EVERYONE, I POSTED ANOTHER STORY: VIOLET HILL: A PMD3 STORY. IT IS A DARKER RETELLING OF THE PMD3 STORY, AND I WOULD APPRECIATE IT VERY MUCH IF YOU WOULD CHECK IT OUT.**

…**but don't abandon this fic, because then it would get awfully lonely ; w ; **

The song for this chapter is (if you want to get into the mood of the story): 'Flanders Fields' by Anthony Hutchcroft.

**Chapter Sixteen: Flanders Fields **

"I need a grave for one," I told the robe-clad receptionist, clearing my throat in the hopes that the tightness of it would dissipate. "And incense for three."

She gazed at me, her dark stare not without sympathy, as she added up the cost in her head. "That will be two thousand dollars," she told me, her breathy voice as insubstantial as the mist that hung in the air of the Lost Tower's lobby. "For the grave, that is; there is no cost for memorial incense."

Swallowing hard, I shifted the swaddled form of Odette further up against my chest as I rummaged through one of the smaller pockets of my bags for money. Lifting one knee to create a flat surface to put my bag upon, I pawed through, clutching any bills I could find. Since gym leaders didn't hand out cash rewards, and I hadn't battled paying trainers since just outside of Sandgem, I was incredibly short on cash. Much too short to pay.

"Um…" Struggling not to drop my pokemon's stiff body, I allowed my bag to smack against my hip once more, and squeezed out the words from my ever-constricting windpipe. "I'm a little short. Sorry." I gave her the best smile I could manage, but felt it wobble. "Uh, can I just have the incense then, please? I'm sorry- _shit." _As she had passed the incense and matches over, they had fallen from my hand, and landed at my feet. Biting my lip in an attempt to ward off the tears that were already trickling down my face, I choked out an apology, and stooped down to try and scoop them up with my free hand only to find that my fingers were clumsy in their shakiness. "I'm sorry," I repeated, knowing how pathetic I must look. "I'm really, really sorry."

"It's alright," she said, her voice too quiet for me to detect sincerity, or lack thereof.

_No it's not, _I thought, my teeth sinking deeper into my lip. _No, it's not fucking okay. I can't even pay for my own pokemon's funeral. How pathetic is that? _

"I'm sorry," I said instead, as if repeating it would make things any better.

I heard her inhale, as if about to say something, but footsteps interrupted her. They were soft, as if whoever they belonged to had taken to treading lightly, and a pair of dark runners stopped a few centimetres from my still-lowered face.

"Here," said a familiar voice. There was a rustling noise. "Will that cover it?"

"Yes," the woman answered.

The shoes pivoted, and then stayed in place. Managing to clutch the objects between my fingers, I straightened slowly, taking in the long legs, faded gray shirt, and, finally, the tense face of Asher himself. His eyes were chips of concrete, fatigue shadowing his face.

To my surprise, he didn't make any scathing remarks on how a trainer should be able to pay for their pokemon's funeral, or how it wasn't surprising that I had lost another team member: instead he let his eyes drop pointedly to the bundle in my arms, and then flick back up to my face.

"You can use the third floor," the woman said, breaking the silence. "Plot seventy. Back right corner."

Giving her a brisk nod, Asher turned away from me, and waded through the mist. Swallowing, I followed after him.

The ascent was slow. Having to weave through the close-packed graves, I was wary of treading on any of the plain gray footstones, while Asher dodged them with an expertness that made me think that he had been here awhile. He was a shadow against the tendrils of white, making it easy for me to keep him in sight as we climbed higher.

Eventually, we made it to the third floor. He stopped at the back right corner, as directed, and as I neared I saw that the plot was barely longer than my leg. In the dirt the number seventy was written, as if sketched by someone's finger.

Still without speaking to me, he knelt, and dipped his fingers into the soil. Burrowing with smooth, practiced motions, he created a sizeable hole in a little over ten minutes.

Crouching down next to him, I bent over the hole, and gently lowered Odette into it. And though my pokemon were stored inside the capsules at my throat, I could almost feel their hearts drop down with her.

Dirt got under my nails as I helped Asher pile the dirt back on. In no time at all, the hole was covered, and we settled back. Placing the incense, unlit, beside me, I watched as Asher sat down, and followed suit.

We sat like that for a small eternity, the ghost of our breath mingling with the mist. It seemed even colder in here, if that was possible; as if winter had made its home here, and was chilling the rest of Sinnoh from this tower.

Then Asher began, in the quiet voice of a father reading his child a bedtime story, "I'm going to tell you what happened back in Hoenn. You can either believe me or not, but stay until the end. It was hard to figure out how to tell this to someone, so it's the least you could do."

I clamped my hands down on my knees, and listened.

"I'm from Littleroot Town, a small town in Hoenn. I grew up there with my mom, my two best friends, Maira and William, and their families. When I was eighteen, we received our starters, and started out on our journey together."

"What you have to realise, before I tell you anything more, is that I was a very different person than I am now. Being brought up with a gym leader as a dad-" At my startled expression, he frowned and turned his face away from me "-came with too many luxuries, and I grew up spoilt. I grew up arrogant. And, most importantly, I grew up selfish.

"In the beginning, my friends and I travelled together. Will came along just for the sake of coming, and Mai did because she was passionate about becoming the champion. I went because it was expected. There was never any question of what I would do in life: I would take the gym challenge, and, whether or not I challenged the league, I would take over for my dad once he decided to retire. And my friends were okay with that- for a while, anyways. By the time I had challenged the fourth gym, though… that's where things started to fall apart.

"You see, Mai…" At her name, he turned back to me, and I flinched back at the raggedness of his expression: lines of grief were cut deep into his face, as if the mention of her was something that caused him physical pain. "Mai was driven. She was strong. And she was sick of me getting by just because of who my dad was. She told me this, and I…I couldn't believe that someone was talking back to me. We had a fight, and she left. Shortly after, so did Will.

"After that, things went from bad to worse.

"Before, my attitude hadn't been good: I had thought of other trainers, including gym leaders, as enemies instead of people. I had treated my pokemon as tools, as things to use so I could get what I wanted. But, because of my friends' words, my behaviour worsened. And the gym leaders I faced weren't the only ones that noticed.

"Steven Stone did, too."

I suppressed a shiver as he continued on, his tone growing bleaker as he recounted the story. His eyes stared ahead, as if the mist was showing him things that I couldn't imagine.

"Now, you're new to the scene of battling, so I'm sure that you don't know this, but the life of the gym leaders and elitists is full of politics. They may not seem like it, but they are as cutthroat as any policymaker; it's all about champions connecting with champions, and leaders playing their cards right in order to move up in their position. Steven Stone is probably the best example of this: his father is the president of the Devon Corporation, his mother controls most- if not all- of the stock market, and he himself is the champion. And when you're champion, it's like you're the king: you have to check your food for poisoning, trust only your closest advisors, and shoot down anyone you suspect is going to turn traitor.

"I know this because that's what my dad taught me while growing up. But even though I had had it drilled into me, I underestimated Steven. When we met, he already didn't like me- but I had to be stupid and make an enemy out of him. Even when I knew he didn't like me, even when he flung the weakest of insults at me, I had to insult him back by saying that I knew that his dad was working with more than just the clean-cut businessmen at Devon. And I paid for it in the end."

A slight trembling had started in his hands, and he squeezed his fingers together until they were bleached white. Nausea quivered in my stomach, and I wrapped my arms around myself, dreading to hear him explain what had happened to his team.

"Months passed, and finally I had managed to gather all of the badges in Hoenn. I hadn't seen Steven since then; I hadn't even thought of him.

"But he was there. When I reached the end of Victory Road, he was there. Waiting. And when he saw me, he turned with a smile.

"'I have waited so long for this,' was what he told me."

When he recited Steven's words, his voice dipped to frigid temperatures, and I felt horror creep into my muscles. But Asher kept speaking: his words came faster and harder, until he was practically spitting them out. As if they would poison him if they were kept inside his mouth for too long.

"He challenged me to a battle, and, like the proud idiot that I was, I accepted. I didn't stop to think why he would challenge me before I had taken on the Elite Four. In fact, I didn't realise that he didn't want our performance to be public until months after it had taken place.

"So we battled. I lost one pokemon in the fight. He lost three.

"I won.

"As he recalled his fainted pokemon and stared at his dead ones on the ground, I could see the hate in his eyes. He was practically shaking with it. But all I really noticed was that I'd won: that I was the new champion, and that Mai and Will were going to be sorry that they'd ever left. You know, that was my prominent thought; that they were going to be sorry. That's what I was thinking to myself after the fight- not about how I should congratulate my pokemon, or how proud my dad would be, but that I hoped that my friends would regret leaving. That's the type of person I was.

"I was so busy fantasising about them crawling back to me that I didn't realise Steven had moved until he was right in front of me, gripping the front of my shirt and tearing my belt off of my hips: the belt that all of my pokeballs were attached to. He was bigger than me, but not by much, so he had to struggle to throw me to the ground; but he managed to, either by determination or desperation, and I was too shocked to get to my feet as I watched him unclip my capsules from the leather and call out his aggron. He must have used some HP-restoring medicine on it while I was daydreaming.

"He shouted something at me- something I forget, and can't seem to remember- and then passed the first pokeball to his aggron, who crushed it in its claws. Then they did that for the second one. And the third. And the fourth. And if exhaustion hadn't taken over his aggron at that exact moment, Li would have been crushed, too.

"Do you know what happens to the pokemon inside the pokeball when the pokeball's crushed, or broken? They become broken, too. Their chests look like warped sheet pans. Their bodies get compressed, until they're just a hunched shape with no distinguishing features. They die. They die almost instantly.

"That's what I found out after Steven left- he had thrown the broken shells at me, shaking with more than just anger, and the look in his eyes was something more like fear. He knew what he had done. He knew what would happen to him if anyone ever found out.

"Even though I can't remember it clearly, I know that I gathered up all of the capsules and then went to the police. But by the time I got there, Steven was already there. By the time I got there, it was already too late."

Tears rolled down my cheeks, bile clogging my throat. Asher just continued to stare, unblinking, as his tone lost some of its bitterness.

"He told everyone that I had challenged him to a battle, and had lost. In a tantrum, I had used the rocks in Victory Road to crush my pokeballs, and kill my pokemon.

"Everyone believed him, and I can't blame them. After all, who would believe an angry teenager when you could believe the champion?"

He paused to let the words sink in, and then said, "Since I was eighteen, I knew I would be trialled as an adult. So I did the only thing I could think of: I packed up and left, and, after a year of sneaking across borders and dodging police, I ended up here. Along the way, I did a lot of thinking- hadn't slept in weeks, just because I had to make up for all the time in which I _hadn't _thought- and grew up. It wasn't easy, but I realised where I had gone wrong, and vowed to be better. I threw all of my badges into the sea, dropped my phone on the ground somewhere, and decided to travel for a while just so I could figure out a way to start again."

His eyes were dry as he finished his story, but the grief in them was more sincere than any tears. As we sat there, each absorbed in our own thoughts, the voices of the Solaceon choir rose in a lament from outside.

"'Inside the towers the flowers blow

"'Between the crosses, row on row

"'That mark our place; and in the sky

"'The bird pokemon, still singing, fly

"'Scarce heard amongst the tragedy below.

"'We are the Dead. Short days ago

"'We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow

"'Loved and were loved, and now we lie

"'In the towers.

"'Take up our quarrel with the foes:

"'To you from failing hands and paws we throw

"'The torch; be it yours to hold it high

"'If ye break faith with us who die

"'We shall not sleep, though flowers grow

"'In the towers.'"

"…Mai explained to me once about memorial incense; that depending on which pokemon you're honouring, the incense burns differently," Asher whispered, the voices outside still rising and falling in song. "Who is the memorial for?"

"Mytho," I whispered back, my intestines still feeling as if giant hand had knotted them together. "It's for Mytho, Kaito, and Odette."

"Mytho," he echoed, lighting the first incense. A plume of smoke curled up, a darker shade of gray than the mist. "Kaito." The next incense sparked a small violet flame, and dusky smoke trailed upwards. "Odette." The last spiral was an ethereal white. The three incenses burned together, their colours mingling, and Asher gently placed them atop Odette's resting place.

Quietness enveloped us. Turning my head, I examined the faraway look in his eyes, and the set of his jaw.

Then I said, "If you still love her half as much as you did then, you'll tell her what you just told me."

He sighed, and trailed one finger in the dirt. "I didn't know that I was in love with her then," he answered. Then he turned to face me squarely, the gray of his irises burning with that cold light of theirs. "You have to realise these things, you know," he told me, abruptly firm. "When there's someone you love like that, someone you can't live without, you have to tell them before it's too late. Don't let yourself realise it when it's too late, when there's nothing you can do."

Heat flashed through me, and I looked away, knowing all too well who he was talking about. But I couldn't think about Damion now; not with all this new knowledge to sort through.

"Mai didn't believe you?" I asked. "Her and Will… why didn't they believe you?"

"I left before news spread," he replied, his eyes sliding away from me. "I never got the chance to find out if they believed me or not."

"And your parents?"

"Were unsurprised," he supplied grimly. "Ashamed, but unsurprised."

I knotted my hands together, shaking my head. "Why haven't you told anyone else this? Why did you finally decide to tell me?"

"I told you because you wanted to know," he said. "No one else has. They just assume."

A pang went through me at how _I _had assumed. "And you wouldn't tell me before because…?"

"When you spend a year dodging a subject, it's hard to broach it in a straightforward way," he said. Then he blinked, and added, as if it had just occurred to him, "Thank you for listening."

It was my turn to blink. "You have to make more people listen," I told him. "You have to make the authorities hook you up to a lie detector to prove your innocence. It's not fair that you have to run away; you should be able to go back home."

"Yeah." One side of his mouth curled up. "It's easier said than done, but yeah, I should. I will. Soon." He closed his eyes for a moment, and then reopened them. "As soon as I figure out what I want to do with this situation, I'm going to do it."

"What are you going to do now?" I questioned, the sick images of broken capsules and smiling champions shrinking my voice down to almost nothing.

"I was actually thinking of going to investigate the Old Chateau more thoroughly," he admitted. "There's something about it that doesn't add up." He then tilted his chin up, and pinned me with one of his cutting looks. "What about you?"

"I'm going to the Solaceon Town, and maybe their ruins," I decided. "I took a picture of some of the unown alphabet with my phone, and want to find out what they mean."

The mist swirled between us as we lapsed into silence yet again. "You make me miss her," he murmured eventually, his voice so quiet that it seemed to be part of the mist. "When I first saw you, with Looker aiming that gun at your face and your pokemon fending him off… you reminded me of her. I still don't really know why, but you did. And now that I know you, you make me miss her."

"I'm sorry." It wasn't enough, but it was all I could say.

He shrugged in reply.

Seeing the pain in his eyes, I shifted, and held out my hand. "Friends?" I asked.

The half-smile dropped off his face, and he regarded me for a moment. Then he placed his musician's hand in mine, and shook it once. "Friends," he agreed, his fingers giving mine a grateful squeeze before dropping them.

Then we sat there, watching both the past and the incense burn.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

_A/ N: …I look forward to your reviews…_

_Flanders Fields (my version), by Anthony Hutchcroft: I gave it a twist so that it would fit the world of pokemon more._

'_In Flanders fields the poppies blow__  
><em>_Between the crosses, row on row,__  
><em>_That mark our place; and in the sky__  
><em>_The larks, still bravely singing, fly__  
><em>_Scarce heard amid the guns below.'_

_'We are the Dead. Short days ago__  
><em>_We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,__  
><em>_Loved and were loved, and now we lie,__  
><em>_In Flanders fields.'_

_'Take up our quarrel with the foe:__  
><em>_To you from failing hands we throw__  
><em>_The torch; be yours to hold it high.__  
><em>_If ye break faith with us who die__  
><em>_We shall not sleep, though poppies grow__  
><em>_In Flanders fields.'_


	21. Chapter Seventeen

**Disclaimer: **Arch: 8 D Screwin' with peoples' brains, one fanfic at a time. Lol, but thank you; I find it very complimentary that I managed to change your thoughts on them : ) Arthur: I am shedding manly tears of happiness at your comment. ; w ; Tri: Oh God, they have torches, too - A - And yes, I do believe it is. Lunary: I would have had her burying the others, too, but she sent Mytho's body downstream and Kaito's evaporated. And yes, Asher's story was…messed X D And the incense is kinda creepy, now that you mention it. Oh, you would LOVE Mai, believe me ; ) Ebaz: Your review made me jump up and down; thank you : D Phoebus: Thanks for adding this to your faves! Do review when you have the time! Olih: Yep, that's what the songs about ^^ I just tweaked it to make it fit more. Thank you so much! And I'm so sorry, it killed me to write about him that way ; A ; STEVEN BABY WHHYYY White: Thank youuu. I'm a sucker for sappy stories, too : 3 Mitsy: Asher lost one pokemon in the fight, and yes, aggron finally succumbed to tiredness after crushing the fourth pokeball. That's why Li is still alive. Mysterious Onlooker: I think I remember you; you reviewed once before, didn't you? Or was that someone else? In any case, thank you very much for your review : ) Platinum: Thank you! That means the world to me. Willy: Thanks for the fave/ alert- reviews are also loved!

**Important Notice:**** Since I've reached a hundred reviews thanks to all of you lovely, lovely people, that means I'll be doing a Questions and Answers for this fic! There is no amount to the number of questions/ comments you can submit. The characters you are allowed to direct the comments/ questions to are as follows: Odile; Damion; Asher; Odile's team (including boxed pokemon, such as Cullen); me, the authoress; and Li, Asher's absol. Questions/ comments won't be used if question is answered in fic/ is directed towards a character that has since died. Enjoy!**

**You can submit your questions/comments anytime now. So please do : ) EVEN IF YOU HAVE ALREADY ASKED QUESTIONS, YOU MAY STILL DO SO IF YOU THINK OF MORE. **

**HEY EVERYONE, I POSTED ANOTHER STORY: VIOLET HILL: A PMD3 STORY. IT IS A DARKER RETELLING OF THE PMD3 STORY, AND I WOULD APPRECIATE IT VERY MUCH IF YOU WOULD CHECK IT OUT.**

…**but don't abandon this fic, because then it would get awfully lonely ; w ; **

The song for this chapter is (if you want to get into the mood of the story): 'Spinning' by Jack's Mannequin.

**Chapter Seventeen: Spinning**

It was strange to go through a daily routine after hearing a story like Asher's: it was just another piece of evidence that proved that life kept going, whether or not you were ready to. Even coaching Magnus to speak properly seemed less annoying, pushed aside by thoughts of crushed pokeballs and corrupted champions.

"I can have breakfast?" I said, pronouncing each word slowly and carefully.

'_I can has breakfast?' _Magnus echoed.

Blowing out a frustrated breath, I shook my head. "I can _have_ breakfast?" I repeated.

'_I can _has_ breakfast?' _Magnus said again.

Rolling my eyes, I slid the plateful of kibble towards him in defeat. "Take it, you oddball."

'_Om nom,' _he purred, his tail thumping against the carpet as he drooled over the food. _'Om nom nom.' _

My other pokemon chuckled before continuing to eat their meals, all of them huddled around the furnace. After parting with Asher at the tower, my team and I had spent the night in the self-proclaimed cheapest motel in Solaceon; still, I barely managed to scrape the money together to afford it. If the motel hadn't offered free food, we wouldn't even be eating breakfast.

Sighing, my eyes refocused on Magnus, only to find that his once-full plate was now completely empty. Frowning, I did a double take.

'_Your face is so much lulz right now, girlfriend,' _he informed me.

"What, did you _inhale_ it?" I asked, completely baffled.

He wagged his tail in reply.

Shaking my head, I decided to let it drop, and lifted myself to sit on the arm of the couch. The capsules that lay atop the coffee table shuddered as I rested my feet beside them, their newly-painted surfaces gleaming under the lights: after eating, I had decorated the pokeballs of the newer members of the team using the last of the paint I had bought in Oreburgh. Checking to make sure that they had dried, I clipped them back onto my necklace, and slid the chain down over my head.

Magnus appeared at my shoulder, dopey eyes round and blinking. _'What now, girl?'_

"Well, we'll wait for the others to finish their breakfast…" Withdrawing my phone from the pocket of my jeans, I scrolled through my photos until I found the one I had taken of the unown alphabet that had lined the walls of the cave. "And then I think we're going to take a little tour of the ruins."

A smile spread like molasses across his muzzle. Then, to show his appreciation for my plan, he belched in my face.

The light of Tesserae's flames skittered across the dank walls of the Solaceon ruins, and we waited as the explorer we had just won against examined the picture of the unown symbols on my phone.

I stroked her back. While exploring the ruins, Tesserae had won against a fair few explorers and history fanatics; we already had enough money to pay for dinner and a handful of pokemon-friendly medication, if not more. So when the explorer had explained how he had no money to offer, I took it in stride.

"Ah," murmured the explorer, drawing my attention to him. "Yes, these are easily recognizable; they spell out part of a well-known myth."

"And?" I leaned closer. "What do they say?"

"'From the blood of Knowledge, Willpower, and Emotion two can be tamed, and from their disharmony the opposite shall arise'," he recited, handing my phone back to me.

My mouth curved downwards. "What does that mean?"

His grimy spectacles gleamed, shining grayly in the gloom. "Knowledge, Willpower, and Emotion represent the lake spirits of Sinnoh."

"What about the other two it talks about?"

He shrugged. "You'll have to forgive me; it's been years since I've studied the legends of Sinnoh."

I ran my fingers along Tess's flank once more, still frowning. "That's okay. Do you have any idea who would seek this sort of stuff out, though?"

He fiddled with the tip of his beard. "Only fanatics; even researchers such as myself would go to a library, unless we were afraid of being seen in public or had an urge to examine the symbols in person."

"Well, thank you." Though not completely satisfied, I had to admit that it was better than nothing. "You helped- oh!" Grimacing apologetically at the explorer, I flipped my now-vibrating phone open. "Hello?"

"Odile!" My name was followed by the crackle of static, and I winced, holding the receiver away from my ear. "Hey, Odile, where are you?"

"Damion, must you scream into the receiver?" I sighed, speaking quietly so that the fluttering in my ribcage wouldn't transfer to my voice. It was so strange to speak to him, knowing that he still thought Asher a murderer: knowing that he had no idea about the gym leaders' political system, or even that Odette had died. Knowing that he didn't know anything.

"Sorry," he said, unabashed. "But seriously, where are you?"

"Solaceon." Then again, his father worked as a higher-up in the Frontier- what if he was aware of what kind of people they were? What if he was planning on taking over for his dad once he was old enough? It would ruin him. "Why?"

"Well, I've gotten the Death Machine redone, but decided to hoof it to Pastoria so you could give it a whirl. Thank Arceus you're still in Solaceon- I stashed it behind some persim bushes by the ruins for you."

"First off, it's probably gotten stolen by now; you should know that from the last time you hid something in a bush. Secondly, I refuse to ride that stupid thing again." No matter what his plans were, I needed to tell him about what I had learned about Asher. And together, we had to figure out a way to spread the word about what really happened.

He laughed. "It's a lot safer now, I promise: most of the gears were replaced."

Apparently realising that I wasn't going to hang up, the explorer lifted a hand in farewell before descending the stone steps that led deeper into the ruins. I returned the gesture, and then went back to patting Tess with my free hand. "I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, then."

"I knew you would." The silence was filled with more than just static, and I could practically hear his hesitation. "What's up with you, Odile? You sound worried."

"I…really need to talk to you." Wincing at how my voice rose, I tried to lower it again. "Where are you?"

"Just outside of Pastoria." There was another pause. "What do you need to talk to me about?"

"Asher."

His change of tone was instantaneous. "What did he do?"

"He didn't do _anything, _Damion, that's just the thing. I know it sounds crazy, but-"

"Wait, O, I can't hear you." As if to reinforce his words, the static increased in volume. "Those Team Galactic goons have set up some weird transmitters around here, and I think it's screwing with my reception." There was some more crackling. "Did Asher hurt you?"

"No. No, Damion, he didn't hurt anyone-"

He started to say something, but there was a burst of static, and the line went dead. I lowered the phone from my ear, and decided that I was going to have to settle with texting him.

_We were wrong about Asher, _I typed. _I'll tell u the rest in person. Call me when u get the chance. _Then, because that didn't seem like enough, I finished with, _Be careful around Team G. _

Hitting 'Send', I stuffed my phone back into its pocket, and breathed in the stale cave air. Tesserae whinnied, the firelight of her mane glancing off of her eyes.

"I guess we should be going," I said, clearing my throat to rid it of the thickness in it. "Veilstone City is next up- and after that, Pastoria."

Tess leaned her head to the side, as if asking me what was wrong.

"I'm just praying that Damion doesn't do anything stupid concerning Team Galactic," I told her, beginning to head up the stairs that led to the entrance. She followed after me. "He'll get himself killed someday, I swear."

She gave a sympathetic snort, and I shielded my eyes against the winter-cold sun as we stepped outside. Looking around for the telltale gleam of a bike, what I had just said rang hollow in my ears, and my throat swelled.

"He'll get himself killed," I repeated. And just like that, other voices surfaced in my memory, cluttering my head.

'_You remind me of my niece. She also had old soul eyes. She died on her journey, after running away with her boyfriend. He was a foolish, headstrong boy that was destined to die from the start. She ended up taking the fall for him.'_

'_I know it hurts now, but you've always been so much better at the emotional stuff than me. You'll be okay.'_

'_You always lie to yourself about things like this. I don't think you've noticed, but you do.'_

'_When there's someone you love like that, someone you can't live without, you have to tell them before it's too late. Don't let yourself realise it when it's too late, when there's nothing you can do.'_

Tesserae whined softly at my change of tone, and I shook my head, trying to dislodge the memories. "Sorry. I guess that talk with Asher… put some things into perspective for me." Burying my hands in the pockets of my jacket, I exhaled, frosty air spilling out of my nostrils. "I guess I really have to buckle down, huh?" I said, more to myself than Tess. "Not just on the gym challenges, but everything else, too. I can't just keep travelling forever. By the summer's end, I have to decide what I'm going to do after this." Another puff of breath rose in the air, this time in form of a humourless chuckle. "And Damion and I _really _need to talk."

Tess's eyes creased in a smile, and she trotted over to a bush. I followed after her, only to find myself staring at a polished black bike with a cartoon skull spray-painted below the seat.

"The more things change, I guess," I sighed. Returning Tesserae to her pokeball, I ran my fingers along the handlebars.

It wasn't as if I had yet another epiphany of how I needed to grow up- those were in the past, and all I could do now was build upon them- but I realised, with a small quirk to my mouth, that, though my steering was shaky, it wasn't as if I needed training wheels anymore. It wasn't as if I needed someone to be there whenever I took a stand, made a decision.

It wasn't as if I needed Damion here to ride this thing.

So I swung one leg over, and kept the other one on the ground. I thought back to days when the summers were hot and I could only count up to twenty.

Then I pushed off, and my feet fumbled on the pedals as I cycled to Veilstone.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"Remind me to _never _do that again," I growled at no one in particular, shakily dismounting the bike. The cartoon skull grinned at me, and I would've kicked it if it wasn't for the fact that I didn't want to ruin the new paint job. "No matter how poetic I'm feeling, and no matter how confident I might be, remind me that I _hate _bikes and that I can _never remember where the fucking brakes are."_

"Odile?" I turned at the sound of my name, and saw Lucas standing a little ways away from me.

"Lucas." Surprise leaked into my voice as he walked over, an infernape following close behind. "What are you doing here? I thought you were in Floaroma."

"I was." He sounded bewildered. "What are _you _doing here? I thought- I mean..."

A frown tugged at my mouth. "I'm taking the gym challenge, remember?"

"Right. I forgot. Sorry."

Peering at him, I felt my frown deepen. "Lucas, are you okay? You look like hell." Although a pang of guilt went through me for being so blunt, it was true: dark circles sagged under his eyes, and his face was white and pinched.

"I'm fine. Totally fine." He gave a limp smile, as if being shocked earlier had drained him of energy. "I just haven't been sleeping well, I guess. I've been going around Sinnoh doing research, and it's taken a lot out of me."

"I'm sorry to hear that." We both looked away, focusing on separate tiles of Veilstone City's main street. "Is that Jeremy?" I asked, gesturing to the infernape.

"Yeah." The infernape snorted, looking as if he hadn't retained any of the playfulness he had had as a chimchar. "He's all grown up now."

A chilled wind blew between us.

"Look, I was just about to go challenge the gym," I began, trying to shake off the awkwardness. "If you wanted to come with-"

"No." I jumped at the firmness in his voice, and he backtracked meekly. "Thanks, but I can't. I have to go finish up on my research."

"Alright." Startled, I tried a smile. "See you around, Lucas."

"Sorry, Odile." The smile he shot me was miserable, and I saw him close his eyes as he turned away and began striding down the cold stone sidewalk.

Hatter popped out of his capsule, the steel bars on his flippers glinting the same colour as the city around us. "That was strange," I remarked, watching as Lucas's retreating back grew smaller and smaller in the distance.

He nodded in agreement.

"C'mon, let's go," I said, rubbing his beak with one hand as I began walking the bike down the sidewalk with the other. "There's no point in worrying about him."

Still, Hatter's chirp was as anxious as my tone was.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Less than half an hour later I found myself in the Veilstone City gym, which was filled to the brim with fighting-type pokemon: meditites, medichams and machops dominated the floor, all equipped with movesets built to K.O normal-types.

And Hunny was wiping the floor with all of them.

"Thank you, you, and you," I said as I passed the gym trainers, collecting my reward money as I went. Winry trotted along in front of me, teeth bared in a grin as our buneary delivered yet another knockout kick to his opponent's jaw.

"Hi, challenger." A girl that looked to be a year or two older than me descended from the rafters, landing on the balls of her gauze-wrapped feet. Winry hissed in surprise. "My name's Maylene, and I'm the gym leader here."

Deciding not to ask why she was on the rafters in the first place, I held out a hand for her to shake. "I'm Odile."

She took it, her grip surprisingly limp. "It's nice to meet you." Despite her friendliness, Asher's words rang loud and clear- _'The life of the gym leaders and elitists is full of politics. They may not seem like it, but they are as cutthroat as any policymaker; it's all about champions connecting with champions, and leaders playing their cards right in order to move up in their position.'_

"Can we start the battle?" At my words, Hunny bounded up to us, paws lifted in a boxer's pose. I lifted him up in my arms.

She reached back to scratch at her short pink hair. "Of course." Distancing herself from me, she pulled a capsule from her waistband. "Fair warning: I take battles very seriously."

"So do I." Swallowing my nerves, I took a breath to steel myself. "Winry, start us off."

She snickered, tail lashing in anticipation.

A pucker formed between Maylene's brows, and the first pokemon she released was a meditite. "You're Odile Rella, aren't you?" she asked, and her pokemon hovered closer, its flat black eyes narrowed in calculation.

"Yes." Winry feigned moving left, and then lunged. The meditite floated away, clapping its hands in a Fake Out to cause her to flinch back. It then followed up with a Drain Punch, which Winry easily dodged.

"Gardenia told me about you." At the mention of Gardenia, Winry growled. Her claws slid from the pads of her feet, and in one practiced motion she side-swiped the hovering blue pokemon. Its blood spattered the floorboards. "You're much more direct than she described you," she admitted, picking at the bandage on her nose in what looked like embarrassment.

"And how did she describe me?" The meditite's eyes flashed violet, and it released a Confusion that hit Winry dead-on. She managed to shake it off, and headbutted the meditite in the stomach.

"Indecisive. Naïve. PMSing." She winced. "Then again, she probably told you that herself."

"More or less." The meditite's body hit the floor hard, and Maylene nibbled on her bottom lip, wasting no time in sending out her machoke.

"I… I haven't been a gym leader as long as the others, but I've been around long enough to notice that she does that to everyone. Don't worry about it." She cracked her knuckles, shifting her weight with a nervousness that surprised me. "Machoke, Drain Punch!"

"Winry, Return!" My pokemon dissolved in a flash of white light, and I ordered Hunny forward in her stead. "It did bug me- it crushed me, actually. But it helped me, too. If she hadn't said what she said… well, I don't want to think of who I'd be now." Hunny darted forward, narrowly missing a downwards punch from the machoke.

Her brown eyes widened. "I don't get how you can say that; I'd flip if anyone bashed me like that."

Despite my best efforts, I couldn't keep up my serious front: a smile wriggled its way onto my lips. "I _did _flip: I had a complete meltdown, and then proceeded to make some incredibly stupid mistakes. But I've come a long way since then- all because of what she said. Now, Hunny, Dizzy Punch!"

Bouncing up, Hunny socked the machoke in the jaw, and aimed a kick to its chest on the way down. The machoke reeled back, toppling almost instantly. _She's a gym leader- aren't her pokemon supposed to be tougher than this?_

I could see her grit her teeth all the way from where I stood. "Sorry; I wasn't paying attention." Withdrawing her machoke, she sent yet another pokeball spinning into the air. "I'm focusing now, I swear."

A lucario materialised, instantly at the ready. Ordering Hunny forward, I saw the lucario look back at Maylene for direction. "Drain Punch," she said.

"Try and trip it, Hunny," I called. Enduring the hit, Hunny's foot flashed out, but the lucario was too quick: it danced out of the way before my plan could be put into play.

"Aura Sphere!" she commanded. Clapping its hands together, an orb of light grew between its palms, which it then hurled at my pokemon. Hunny dodged, sending himself into a dive-roll.

"Aim for its feet!" I shouted. If Hunny could twist the lucario's ankle, then the speed that it relied on would no longer work in its favour: all we needed was to get one kick in, and we'd be good.

The lucario looked back at Maylene again, who seemed to be choking on words. Taking advantage of her hesitation, Hunny launched himself at the lucario's leg: the kick connected, and there was a sharp crack as our opponent fell to one knee.

Maylene made a low noise in the back of her throat. "Lucario, get up!"

"Hunny, finish it off with a Jump Kick." The lucario didn't struggle as Hunny readied the final blow: it simply kneeled and waited, closing its eyes indifferently.

"Get _up!" _Maylene repeated with a kind of hopeless desperation.

In reply Hunny's foot met its face with astounding force, and it fell softly sideways, not making a sound as it fainted.

Taken aback by how easy the win was, I stood as Winry and Hunny celebrated, bumping noses in their version of a high five. From across the gym, I watched as Maylene balled her hands into fists, her face crumpling in frustration.

And I watched as she began to cry.

She lifted both fists to her face, and covered her eyes with them. My pokemon stopped immediately, ears pricked with curiosity and concern, and I hastily returned them to their capsules before rushing over to her. "Hey, are you okay?" I asked.

"No, I'm not at all," she whispered, her voice breaking. "I haven't won any battles for _months. _My pokemon don't even like me anymore. I don't know what to do."

Acutely aware of how the gym trainers were staring, I put a hand on her shoulder, at a loss for how to comfort her. "Maybe you should take some time off," I suggested. "Maybe you're pushing yourself too hard."

She shook her head, spraying teardrops. "I can't. Sensei died- _he's _the real gym leader, not me." Her sigh was watery. "I don't know what real strength is, or what it means to be a trainer."

"You can't define either of those; there is no real strength, and no one can say what it means to be a trainer. Those are both up to you." I looked into her face, which was already bloating with tears, and felt pity lance through me. "Look, Maylene, I know it's hard- I know it all seems impossible at times. I know _life _seems impossible at times. But that's why you have to keep pushing forward." I gave her a little shake. "You said your sensei is the true gym leader- well, make him proud. Prove to him and yourself that you can be a gym leader, too. If you can do that, then I think you'll know what it means to have real strength." A small, melancholy smile shaped my mouth. "As for what it means to be a trainer… well, I'm sure you'll figure it out for yourself. I'm still figuring it out, myself."

She lowered her hands, blinking at me. Then she gave a loud sniffle, took the hand that I had on her shoulder, and pressed the badge into it.

"I would've given you the badge for that speech alone," she said, cracking a tearstained grin. "I don't get what Gardenia was talking about- that was the smartest, nicest thing anyone's ever said to me." The wetness on her cheeks glimmered. "Thanks for that."

"You… are really welcome." A mixture of pride and sympathy inflated my heart, causing a tightening sensation in my chest. "Thank you, too."

With wet eyes she went over to her lucario, who she helped sit up. I stared after her for a moment before turning, stowing the badge away in my bag. My shoes clacked on the floorboards as I exited the gym, pushing the double doors open to allow a blast of icy air to greet me-

Only to find myself face-to-face with Lucas.

"Odile, please, I need your help," he begged, the words spilling from his lips the instant he saw me. Tears clung to the tips of his lashes, and helplessness was carved into his face. "Please, Team Galactic stole my pokedex- they went into the storage unit a block from here, and I'm too scared of them to go alone-"

"Lucas, calm down." Bewildered, I took a step back. "What happened?"

He took a shaky breath. "I was going to go get something to eat, and then I was jumped by these two guys; I think they were the ones that attacked you, me, and Prof. Rowan back in Jublife. Please, Odile, help me; I don't know who else to ask-"

"Lucas, I will, don't worry." Recovering, I nodded at him.

A tear ran down his cheek. "Thank you." He backed up, calling, "If you need to rest your pokemon, go ahead- I'll meet you near the unit."

"Alright." He turned and began running, arms pumping like pistons. Hefting my bag's weight, I started jogging in the opposite direction, vowing not to make him wait too long.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"Thank you," I told the nurse, retrieving my pokeballs and beginning to clip them back onto my necklace. Once I was finished I hit the streets running, threading my way through hoards of people to get to Lucas faster.

I was nearly at the storage unit when my cellphone rang.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Odile?" A gruff, familiar voice returned.

"Prof. Rowan?" Catching my breath, I slowed, nearly coming to a stop.

"Your mother stopped by a few days ago, and gave me your number; I thought that I would call to check in on how your pokedex is filling up," he answered. "I hope you don't mind."

"Not at all." The amount of people had diminished quickly, and now it was only me walking along the grimy backstreet of Veilstone. "It's coming along great, thanks. I'm already in Veilstone."

"Is that so." There was a slight hesitation. "Have you come across Lucas, by any chance? He hasn't reported back to me in quite a while."

"I just saw him, actually. And what do you mean, he hasn't been reporting? He's been collecting research data for you." My footfalls were painfully loud in the quiet, rebounding off the alley walls.

The silence on the professor's end was as heavy as deadweight. "I have asked him to do no such thing: he left without telling me anything right after we returned from Jublife."

My steps were slowing even more now, even as I went to round the corner. "He told me he was going to go visit relatives in Floaroma."

A chill ran up my spine as I spoke the words, and it was at that exact moment that the storage unit came into view, looking as if it hadn't been lived in for years.

"Odile," the professor said slowly, with growing dread, "Lucas doesn't _have _any relatives in Floaroma."

And it was then that a great weight crashed upon my head, sending me sprawling headfirst into unconsciousness.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

_A/N:_

_Flamer + Writer's Block= Neglect. I am so sorry for neglecting this fic._

_I am going to Hawaii for a week or so, but after that I'll be revising the earlier chapters. : )_

_Also, REVIEW. Haa, I wish I could see your faces right now… you guys thinking Lucas was a good guy… *rolls on floor laughing*_

_EVERYONE PLEASE CHECK OUT THE PIC THAT ARTHUR DREW: JUST TYPE IN 'DEATHMACHINESHIPPING DEVIANTART' INTO GOOGLE AND IT'S THE FIRST THING THAT POPS UP. ITS SO ADORABLE._

_Spinning, by Jack's Mannequin: From Odile's POV._

'_I'm keeping quiet 'till there is no more sirens  
>Lately it's been hard to keep the hinges on with all the noise'- <em>Odile trying to cope with everything that's been thrown at her.

_'I'll find my words when there is no one talking  
>The room is spinning I have got no choice'- <em>How she's trying to find her inner voice among the 'noise' of other peoples' opinions and points of view.

_'Be patient I am getting to the point'- _Talking to Damion.

'_I can't remember when the earth turned slowly  
>So I just waited with the lights turned out again<em>

_I lost my place but I can't stop this story  
>I've found my way, but until then<br>I'm only spinning'- _How she's beginning to find her way.

'_I'm keeping quiet til the phone stops ringing  
>Lately it's hard to disconnect, I just want something real<em>

_I've found the words if I could just stop thinking  
>The room is spinning, I have got no choice<br>Be patient, I am getting to the point.'- _Again, finding herself.

'_Spin beneath the rooftop  
>Hold on, wait until the room stops<br>Spinning'- _How she's trying to hold on as everything she thought she knew falls apart around her.


End file.
